Will This Telehealth Service be Enough to Address the Teen Mental Health Crisis Across New York City Public Schools?

HOST 

Last month, Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene launched a new telehealth service called “TeenSpace.” The online platform connects teens to a licensed therapist through call or text. It’s one of the city’s many proposed solutions to the ongoing teen mental health crisis. 

But, therapists and public school social workers say the platform does not solve the bigger systemic issues preventing teens from getting support. Tricia Stortz reports. 

STORTZ 1

P.S. 178 is a middle school in Brownsville, Brooklyn. 

One eighth grader there says she almost didn’t finish the 7th grade because of depression. That is, until her principal referred her to Natasha Sakil, one of the two social workers available to the 278 students at her school.

Sakil says she understands the weight of her role but can’t realistically meet with all the teens who need her support.

SAKIL 1 

There is an open-door policy for counselors and social workers, but because of our work load, we are often not always available to them. 

STORTZ 2 

TeenSpace is intended for those exact teens who need extra support and can’t meet with their school’s social worker often enough. Annalee Sweet is a licensed therapist who specializes in adolescent mental health. She says the city’s therapists and social workers face the same strain. 

SWEET 1

I'm constantly getting inquiries and referrals. People are looking urgently for mental health support for their kids and teenagers. And I don't have any space in my practice. The shortage of social workers is really problematic, not just in the schools but across the whole board.

STORTZ 3 

And, while TeenSpace may connect some teens to a therapist, it may not be that simple. 

SWEET 2

These systems are so broken. Because once you start trying to have school social workers refer kids to, say, an individual therapist, then you're getting into, is that kid covered by health insurance? Can that kid's family pay?... ya’know there's no way. 

STORTZ 4 

Without mental health support from a therapist or social worker, teens tend to rely on each other. P.S. 178’s Principal, Loren Cooper, says the students who regularly meet with a social worker just want to offer their peers the same support that they’ve been receiving. 

COOPER 1

I see a lot of those students just supporting each other… speaking with social workers and talking about their feelings helps them to be sympathetic and empathetic towards their peers.

STORTZ 5  

But, Sweet says the responsibility of support should not be put on teens by default.

SWEET 3 

I see kids that not only are so stressed out and impacted by what's going on with their peers, but those peers, because of their own mental health struggles, trauma, or family issues, can't really function as supportive, secure attachments and friends. 

STORTZ 6 

TeenSpace doesn’t address the shortage of social workers in schools or all of the barriers between teens and therapists. And Principal Cooper says the burden will continue to fall on the students if nothing changes.

COOPER 2 

There's a lack of support and we really need it. I think it would be wonderful if the city and the state provided us with more social workers so that we could really meet the needs of our kids.

STORTZ 7

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are proposing solutions to the nationwide shortage of social workers, and time will tell if schools will get the resources they need. Tricia Stortz, Columbia Radio News.