The following composite story speaks to one of the calls-to-action for a reimagined ecosystem as identified by youth and families in the Youth at the Center Report – how the system cannot fully meet the needs of young people without also addressing the needs of the adults in their lives.  

The Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative’s (CYBHI) Stories from the Field series aims to highlight the critical work being done to address the behavioral health needs of children and youth, as well as the ongoing efforts to improve systems and create sustainable change. These stories showcase the values and vision of the Initiative through personal experiences, composite stories, and audiocasts, and demonstrate how the CYBHI can build on existing efforts, learn from them, and work towards scalable and systemic change.

As CYBHI seeks to transform the state’s behavioral health ecosystem, a core component of our work is to meet families where they are by facilitating and strengthening partnerships with K-12 schools. For many children across California, schools provide the best – and in some cases, the only – available access point for support. 

One school in the mountains of rural Northern California is more than just a place kids go for a few hours every day to learn. There aren’t any mental health resources in the area, and the school doesn’t have a school counselor. Teachers organize the school celebrations and events, advocate for kids who have special learning needs, keep the school and classrooms equipped, and in the absence of any school or community mental health support, they do what they can to help students and parents who are struggling emotionally. 

After the pandemic hit, it didn’t take long before the mental health impacts started to show up. But it wasn’t the young people that showed the effects of stress at first – it was their parents. Many parents had lost their jobs or had their hours reduced and struggled to make ends meet. On top of this, parents had to juggle teaching and supervising their kids at home while doing any work they could find. By the time the restrictions were lifted, and students returned to in-person learning, everyone was stressed to the breaking point. 

Many parents had to choose between doing a full day’s work or making the two-hour round trip to school in the morning and afternoon. Jobs were scarce, and parents worried that showing up late from school drop-off would get them fired. As a result, their children either missed school or went unsupervised on school grounds long before and after teachers were present. Many parents felt so stressed and depressed that they struggled to get through the day. It was clear that the path toward improving the health and well-being of children had to start with addressing the mental health of the adults and caregivers in their life – both parents and teachers.

The school team started by changing the staff’s schedules into earlier and later shifts, ensuring they had adults to supervise students while their parents worked and commuted. Students and staff started a cooking club to create simple “grab and go” breakfast bags. Children were allowed to eat in their classrooms as the school day began if they were hungry or keep the food in their packs for a snack later in the day. A school garden was created, which the students helped to tend as part of their natural science classes. Produce from the garden was paired with supplies from the local food bank to create weekly take-home care packages for all children. Classrooms were made available for use after school, where parents could run a parent support group while students played outside, supervised by the late-shift staff.

While some kids and families still struggled, the changes made an impact: parents worried less about leaving their children while they worked, and students’ concentration improved after having breakfast every day. Teachers were also able to take home care packages from the garden and food bank each week, helping to augment their salaries and decrease stress.

The lesson: you can’t take care of children’s mental health if you’re not taking care of the adults in their lives. Supporting mental health means more than just ensuring access to therapy. Helping meet people’s stated needs and making it easy to get the help you’re offering can be the most powerful thing you can do to help someone’s mental health. 

Our systems need to help parents and families deal with the day-to-day stressors and help them heal from their own experiences and interrupt the intergenerational transmission of trauma. This principle is foundational to CYBHI’s efforts to provide services, resources, and support to families, so they are able to best meet the needs of their children.