Report Documents Behavioral Health Needs of Schools in McLean and Neighboring Counties

Original coverage in WGLT by Melissa Ellin.

A recent Birth to Five Illinois report shows that schools across Region 17 — which covers McLean, DeWitt, Livingston and Logan counties — need more mental and behavioral health resources.

Carol Weisheit, regional council manager for Region 17, said there’s a need for more providers and education about mental health resources for parents. The report contains over a dozen recommendations for improvement.

“We talk a lot about older people and mental health issues, but this really looks at what is starting in the early years that we could catch early and make progress with so maybe down the road we could prevent some of the issues that people have as they age,” Weisheit said.

Background

Birth to Five Illinois launched two years ago to bring solutions to the problems plaguing the state’s education system. Its needs assessment for Region 17 came out last year.

Weisheit said it had “threads (from) across the state about access to services that affect the behavioral and mental health issues for young children,” so Birth to Five Illinois decided to do another report, tackling the issues head-on: the Region 17 Early Childhood Needs Assessment: Focus on Mental & Behavioral Health.

Between February and May, Birth to Five Illinois interviewed Region 17 Action Council and Family Council members about where schools could improve behavioral health support for youth.

Findings

Key takeaways from the report highlighted a deficit of resources in rural resources, a need for more diverse therapists, and additional providers that accept Medicaid.

Molly Allen is the assistant regional superintendent of schools for Regional Office of Education #17 (ROE) and a Birth to Five Illinois' Action Council member. She said the report was “confirming.”

“We are seeing the effect of mental health needs in schools and in particular the need for early intervention,” she said. “If you talk to most educators, that's what their experience is right now.”

At the same time, Allen said the region has strengths, which the report also outlined. That includes having a committed community and a robust base of mental health providers.

Allen said the work is now about filling in gaps across school districts and counties. She pointed out that everyone has different resources available, and the needs in a rural district may differ greatly from somewhere like Bloomington-Normal.

“When we talk about raising children in our communities, we always say it takes a village,” she said. “Well, villages look different, and sometimes you have to lifeline outside of your village for that support.”

Next Steps

Leveraging resources in cities like Bloomington-Normal will likely be part of the solution for getting needed mental and behavioral health support to rural communities, Allen added.

Meanwhile, the report details 16 recommendations for how to get children across the four counties the support they need. Some suggestions were minor, such as building a database of resources, and others were more large-scale, like increasing the number of service providers across the region and getting more infant and early childhood mental health (I/ECMH) consultants.

Many of the recommendations call on service providers to act, including adding more youth psychiatrists and professionals who know multiple languages to the workforce.

Weisheit said meetings are ongoing with stakeholders to determine action steps for the overall needs assessment conducted last year. A McLean County meeting happened in June, and Weisheit said these community conversations are where she hopes to lump in details from the mental and behavioral health needs assessment, to plot actionable steps to improve upon issues identified in both reports.

“I think through that process is how we’re going to make change,” she said. “Because it’s all of us.”