How to Help Address America’s Youth Mental Health Crisis

In an op-ed in Salon, Assistant Professor of School Counseling Cameka Hazel, Ed.D., explains how an increase in school counselors in grades K-12 could help address America’s youth mental health crisis.

School counselors are trained to help students reach their goals by addressing academic, career development, emotional, and social challenges. In addition to the effects of the pandemic, other causes of youth depression and anxiety include cyberbullying, traumatic experiences, marginalization, and school shootings, which have far-reaching effects and can also traumatize those who did not personally experience the violent acts, Hazel notes.

School counselors’ skill sets go beyond assisting students with navigating classroom conflicts and college readiness; they are also trained to recognize mental health warning signs. And yet they remain all too uncommon.

The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, but the average ratio nationwide is about one to 400. But roughly a fifth of all students in grades K-12 have no access to counseling in their school. “If we’re to have any hope of reversing the alarming youth mental-health deterioration, we must improve access to school counselors,” she says.