Coalition on mental health gaining steam
The SMTX Coalition on Mental Health that formed in late 2018 is gaining support as it continues in its mission to provide adequate mental health resources for young people in the community.
Anne Halsey, a member of the coalition, said that the coalition’s list of interested parties is up to more than 100 people.
“That represents major health care as well as social service providers in the area, representatives from the school district where we have a new director of social-emotional counseling as well as social emotional counselors at each of our campuses,” she said, along with representatives from the counseling center at Texas State University, county and city governments, Wimberley ISD, Hill Country MHDD, private-practice therapists, pediatricians and community groups.
The coalition involves “a really good, broad representation of people who are interested in the health and well-being of our kids, which I think is fantastic,” Halsey said. “We’ve also got the support of Texas System of Care, which is the name of the group and also the strategy they advocate for.”
Texas System of Care supports mental health coalitions across the state and helps communities craft a coalition tailored to their needs, Halsey said. The goal is to make sure that children don’t fall through the cracks and get the mental health care and support they need.
“They have come on board with us and are offering basically all of their resources to us without cost to us,” she said.
Halsey said the SMTX Coalition on Mental Health is keeping track of what the Texas Legislature is doing as far as addressing mental health needs across the state.
“I’m hoping that we will have somebody from Texans Care for Children who works on this at the capital to come down and give us a real-time update on where things stand and where we might be able to work as a group to petition for more resources,” she said.
The coalition’s next meeting is today. Halsey said the group’s five subcommittees are expected to deliver reports at the meeting. One of those subcommittees is tasked with creating a mission statement for the coalition, she said, and she expects a strong and focused mission statement to emerge.
“I think we’re moving quickly but thoughtfully,” she said, “and we’re trying to focus on setting a few goals that we can all work on together rather than trying to create a really broad palette of efforts. We’re trying to be focused.”
The coalition is setting out a timeline for achieving results.
“In the future, there might be other iterations of how this works, but right now we’re really looking at a six-month process,” she said.
The group intends to identify existing mental health resources for young people (through age 24) in the community, find barriers and gaps in services, increase support for organizations already working on mental health services for young people, establish a set of best practices, and make a recommendation to the city’s Committee on Children and Youth on increasing awareness of and reducing the stigma around mental health issues.
Efforts to provide mental health resources for young people in Texas gained prominence after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled his multi-pronged plan for preventing school shootings. Social-emotional counseling and other measures are part of that plan. According to figures from Texans Care for Children, in 2017 one in eight Texas high school students had attempted suicide in the last year. One in eight high school students also reported recent binge drinking, and one in seven had reported having used prescription pain medication inappropriately.
