Life can be stressful. For many young Americans, an increased awareness of mental health and a willingness to address issues as they arise has led to a desire to seek out professional help and support, typically through services such as school-based counselors. 

In recent years, however, this increase in demand for school counselors has far outstripped supply, leading to a nationwide shortage at a scale never before seen in America. How can we come together to help tackle the challenges in contemporary schools?

We’ll soon discover that the solutions to the school counselor shortage are complex. It’ll take more than just a new generation of students enrolling in  a Masters in School Counseling online - it’ll take reimagining what it means to provide counseling at a school. How can we ensure that students receive the best care possible while maximizing the opportunities available to students who need them? 

Changing Attitudes on Mental Health

It’s essential to recognize that the way society treats mental health has changed. Long gone are the days of locking away those experiencing distress in asylums — society, as a whole, has matured to recognize that mental health and wellness are an essential part of who we are.

This maturation of conversations around mental health has resulted in lasting change over the years. Young people are now encouraged to express themselves and talk about how they feel and the things impacting their mental health. This openness helps to save lives, but by design, it requires resources to address the issues that arise.

While teachers are often the first point of contact for students in a classroom, recent studies have revealed that many feel out of their depth or inadequately trained to deal with mental health issues in the school. Often, it falls to student well-being services to provide the care necessary to continue their educational journey.

A Student Trauma Crisis

The increased reliance on student well-being services to provide counseling comes at a challenging moment. Children live in a world far more connected than ever — with social media and the internet helping foster a generation of anxious teenagers who have had their brains functionally rewired due to dealing with this new, technology-driven reality.

Social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation Jonathan Haidt describes the period between 2010 and 2015 as the most challenging for teens. This period was unlike any other, with a surge in smartphone usage and the emergence of smartphones priming students to be more depressed, anxious and nervous than ever before.

The impact of technology on today’s teens is stark — students are growing up in an environment where triggers to mental health occur everywhere — from social media to social interactions. These hazardous environments then feed back into student trauma — causing them to have a greater reliance on mental health services — more than any generation previously experienced.

This newfound norm, combined with the fact that student counselors are in high demand, has resulted in a crisis in many schools — there are simply too few counselors to deal with the sheer volume of issues that students face daily.

A Shortage of Counselors

Data produced by the National Council of Behavioral Health highlights how stark the shortages are for many counties. In recent years, they’ve reported that more than 75% of counties have severe shortages of mental health professionals — there are simply not enough professionals to provide support for the people who need them.

The story is much more stark when looking at the number of qualified counselors who work in American schools. The leading body, the American School Council Association (ASCA), recommends a minimum capability requirement of one counselor per 250 students — which they have advocated for since 1965. These capacities are crucial to driving positive student outcomes, with research finding that small ratios can often be found to improve student outcomes while also helping the students who need counseling much more effectively.

Only two U.S. states have a counselor-to-student ratio in line with targets — Vermont and New Hampshire have more than enough counselors to meet ASCA’s targets. Challenges exist in states such as Arizona, Illinois, and Michigan, where student counselors have to deal with ratios of more than six hundred students for each working counselor.

What Are The Solutions?

How does one begin to tackle the challenges in counseling, particularly as demand for mental health roles outpaces the available workforce? The answer lies in two parts — tackling why trainee counselors leave the role and providing funding for the improved operation of local, state and federal mental health initiatives so that more counselors can be trained and hired.

Fortunately, investment in mental health is heading in the right direction — significant investments by federal politicians, such as the nearly $1.5 billion investment in mental health initiatives such as 988 Lifeline, are helping to connect people who need mental health support as quickly as possible.

In many states, including New York, significant investments in state mental health systems are beginning to tackle the challenges of a new generation of mental health patients.Investments in new facilities, such as expanding mental health services for children and investing in the mental health workforce, highlight state and federal departments' role in driving positive change. 

Active engagement with the community, including consultation with more than 1,700 New Yorkers, is also beginning to help shape the mental health supports available in the state into assistance that works for their needs.

The investments from federal and state legislative bodies in mental health highlight that governments of all levels understand that mental health is a significant issue - and that everybody who needs help should be able to access the services that they need to thrive.

Much needs to be done to tackle the shortfalls in mental health care, and in schools, it can be challenging to get the support necessary to run counseling programs effectively. For those who need help, however, seeing that services are coming together to make a genuine difference is promising.