Smoothing Transitions for Students with Severe Mental Health Needs

As a social worker in urban public school settings for 19 years, Senior Lecturer Megan Harding, M.S.W. ’07, couldn’t help but focus on students with the most serious mental health needs—and then broaden her focus to the systems around those students.

There had to be a better way, she thought, to meet the needs of those students, who were at high-risk of dropping out.

While she knew schools were committed to helping students who had experienced acute mental health

crises return to school, there seemed to be a gap in support that led to many students with serious emotional issues leaving school entirely.

As an administrator and clinician in Holyoke public schools for nine years, Harding oversaw social emotional learning for the district; managed community partnerships with the schools; supervised SSW interns; and focused on the needs of students experiencing emotional distress in school.

What she found was that systems weren’t optimal for students coming back to school after an absence due to a crisis.

“The biggest gap, the thing we hadn’t figured out how to do well, was how to structure mental health support in school from a tiered level for all students, as well as students who have experienced acute mental health issues,” she said.

This realization led to her affiliation with Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition, referred to as BRYT (and pronounced bright.) The BRYT model, which began in 2004 at Brookline High School, has expanded into a network of 103 schools across Massachusetts, serving more than 113,000 students.

Harding has worked as a family engagement consultant for the BRYT network for more than two years.

“It’s a great model because it’s highly structured, high-touch, highly supportive and culturally responsive to individual schools,” she said.

BRYT staff help schools create a program that provides intensive intervention and support to students returning to school after a prolonged absence due to mental health issues.

The model includes a dedicated space open all day, where students receive support for emotional, as well as academic, needs. Over time, students reduce their time in the BRYT space as they re-engage with school. The program also provides vital support to families in crisis.

Harding notes that most schools do try hard to meet the needs of students with severe mental health issues.

“It’s not that schools aren’t already tending to these kids,” she said. “They’re doing the work, but they’re doing it inefficiently.”

Harding was appointed senior lecturer in January 2018, and teaches school social work, education policy and introduction to social welfare policy, as well as chairing the policy sequence.

She believes one of the strengths of the BRYT model is that it holds students closely, providing short-term intensive support determined by their individual needs that helps them remain on track to graduate.

“If they’re in the school building, they’re much more likely to stay in school,” Harding said.

According to data from a BRYT evaluation between 2013 and 2016, 85 percent of the students in BRYT programs got back on track to graduate, while students with acute mental health experiences in general have a 50 percent dropout rate. BRYT students also experienced significant reductions in self-harming behavior, according to the study, whose results were published in Psychology in Schools.

The BRYT program provides professional development and consultation for clinicians leading the programs within the schools, helping schools tailor culturally sensitive support to families as they support their children in returning to school.

Several public schools with BRYT programs now offer placements for SSW students, and Harding sees it as an excellent training ground.

“The BRYT model is the ideal school-based placement because it has close supervision, it’s a small program, you work directly with kids and their families who have acute mental health needs,” she said. “It’s high-need, high-touch in a setting where they’re able to see the intersection of home, school and the mental health delivery system.”—Laurie Loisel