Youth Mental Health: What Works?
FROM THE LOCAL NEWS NETWORK"Youth mental health: What Works?" is the Local News Network's deep dive into the youth mental health crisis in Maryland and beyond, focusing on solutions that have proved to help troubled young people. Funded with a $7,500 grant from the Solutions Journalism Network's Student Media Challenge, the project focuses on innovative programs in public schools and communities in Maryland and elsewhere. The project includes a deep dive into the state's expanded youth mental health effort under the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, and also includes a look at youth mental health programs in each of the state's 23 counties as well as the city of Baltimore. About this project.
Featured Stories
Schools can screen students for behavioral health issues – but many are reluctant to do so
After Achilles Bardos learned about the internet in the 1990s, he thought to himself, “Why not in psychology?” A school psychology professor, Bardos talked with his colleagues about using the web to quickly collect data on student behavior. A few…
‘Playworks’ reinvents recess as a learning experience
PHILADELPHIA — You won’t find swings, slides or a kickball field outside Rhawnhurst School. Instead, the school’s “playground” is a vast expanse of barren blacktop with just a lone basketball hoop. Yet at this aging two-story elementary school in this…
Despite earlier proposal, youth mental health initiatives see minimal cuts in Maryland state budget
Maryland mental health advocates and providers are relieved coming out of this year’s legislative session, where state lawmakers decided against a drastic cut in funding to the state’s year-old, big-money program aimed at improving the mental health of its young people.
Rapid-response teams aid troubled youths in New Jersey – but funding limits Maryland’s similar effort
A young New Jersey girl tormented others in her kindergarten class. Alienated from her classmates, she physically attacked other students and colored the bathroom walls with a permanent marker. Access to mental health care was complicated in her rural county,…
Schools face a shortage of social workers – but Howard University has a plan that helps
Project PRESS aims to motivate social work students to do something many of their predecessors have decided not to do: work in schools.
In Massachusetts and elsewhere, youngsters find healing through art
A nonprofit youth development organization uses art therapy techniques and the power of community to promote healing.
As youngsters struggle with mental health, some get help from peers
With youth spending much of their time in schools, many school-based peer programs empower young people to help each other while building a sense of community.
Other states have tackled youth gambling. Why hasn’t Maryland?
Nearly one in five Maryland high school students have gambled in the past year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Youth mental health profiles by county
See a profile and data about youth mental health grants in every county in Maryland.
How one Maryland school district turned around student behavior with ‘restorative practices’
District officials in Worcester County credit restorative practices with creating an atmosphere that led to a 28% drop in violent incidents across all schools in the past year.
Maryland spent big on youth mental health — but then the budget crisis hit
Thrive Behavioral Health won state funding to work with students with severe behavioral issues in five school districts to keep the youths from being removed from school — and the agency said its tactics are working.
About “Youth Mental Health: What Works?”
In the 2022-23 school year, more than a quarter of Maryland high school students reported their mental health was “not good at most or all times.”