NEW ORLEANS — In that first year of the pandemic, emergency room visits for mental health needs went up 24 percent for school-aged children, and 31 percent for teens.
And one group of health providers has found a way to help the students and it's right next to their classrooms.
It's not like in the past with one school nurse, in one room with a cot. DePaul Community Health Centers runs a full multiroom clinic on the campus at McDonogh 35.
“When you have actual services right there on site, it does provide an additional layer of security for the students, for the staff, as well just the school as a whole,” said Stephen Goodly, Sr. the assistant principal at McDonogh 35.
What's keeping both the clinic manager, and nurse practitioner, especially busy now, are the mental health needs of the students.
“There are a lot of students suffering from anxiety. It's been very difficult for them to come back into the school setting, and students are also suffering from ADHD, who probably would have been diagnosed with it,” explained Ashley Hébert, a DePaul Nurse Practitioner, certified in family health and psychiatric health.
They say the isolation during the pandemic, difficult family dynamics, struggling during this high inflation, and the pressure of social media are the main contributors.
“Social skills are lost. Courtesy, and kindness, all that stuff is gone. Everything is I, me, my. So, if you fall down, instead of somebody coming to help you, everybody pulls out their camera and say, ‘Let's film it,’ not, ‘Are you alright? Let me help you,’” said Dione Joseph-Breckenridge, a school based clinician manager at DePaul.
And with the professional help at the campus DePaul clinic, they are seeing improvement. Students don't have to miss a lot of class, and parents don't have to leave work to get them to a doctor's appointment.
A lot of students don't know that the free service is available to them.
It's open year around from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Any student who is enrolled at an InspireNOLA school, can come to McDonogh 35 and get both mental and physical health care services.
DePaul has around 25 school-based health clinics throughout Orleans and Jefferson parishes. They are open for students and staff who go to those schools.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.