As an educator, counselor, mother, and citizen, I have experienced over and over again just how difficult it is for children in a mental health crisis to receive the support they need.
I have worked as a counselor in a NH public school for 17 years and have witnessed first-hand how children with a brain disease or a mood disorder and their families are turned away or put on month-long waitlists for treatment.
In 2019, I was delighted that the state had finally made strides to meet children’s behavioral health needs in our state and acknowledge the science. Mental health is brain health just like bone health or heart health. I join so many other Granite Staters, in supporting mental health access for children within a system of supports that are community-based. In addition to providing better outcomes for children, such as improved school attendance, reduced discipline referrals, and improved academic achievement, access to these services achieves cost saving by keeping youth out of the hospital emergency rooms or from requiring the involvement of child protection and juvenile justice system.
Please ensure funding and implementation of statewide mobile crisis response and stabilization and other services and programs. Please secure needed funding to provide community-based services and alternatives to emergency room treatment for children with behavioral health needs. Please maintain funding for the Department of Education’s Office of Social and Emotional Wellness so they may provide technical assistance to schools to implement the Multi-Tiered System of Supports.
Martha Madsen
Hopkinton