Report: Behavioral and emotional issues on the rise among Vt. children - WCAX

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) -Vermont children ages there to eight are experiencing anxiety and depression and acting out.

That’s according to Building Bright Futures’ 2022 state of Vermont report. The report said nationwide, kids that age experiencing problems remained at 8% from 2016 to 2021.

So why did Vermont’s numbers jump from nearly 9% to nearly 14% in just two years? I ask educators and mental health experts what’s going on.

The data about the 3-to-8-year-olds’ experiences are collected from parents and caregivers. To support those findings, Cheryle Wilcox of the Department of Mental Health said last year there was an uptick of children in crisis services from 198 to 262.

While every behavioral and mental health instance is unique, experts agree that the pandemic has played a role.

“Just like adults, it was challenging for us. And that is even felt higher by young children who just don’t have aren’t out with other people and experiencing being in the world and interacting with other people,” said Wilcox.

A staffing crisis plagues the state’s mental health system with over 1,000 vacancies in the mental health workforce, with positions including school interventionists to clinicians at the state’s facilities.

“It just makes it harder to get in to do more prevention work. And so then we’re seeing children who are having more increased challenges and increased behaviors,” said Wilcox.

“The challenges are not behind us. Yet. But I also want everyone to consider that kids are resilient. Right? Families are resilient. We are learning more and more about how to cultivate that resiliency,” said Dr. Jeremiah Dickerson with the University of Vermont Medical Center.

Dr. Dickerson adds Vermont is open to talking about mental health topics and wonders if that’s why the state’s numbers surpass those of the country.

He agreed that there’s an increasing trend of kids needing mental health services, especially due to specific rural challenges like isolation and access to services.

John Bratko is the new principal of Bristol Elementary School, which, like many schools across the state, has experienced instances of students having behavioral and emotional challenges in recent years.

Through November this year, 84% of students had none or just one reported outburst. 5% of the student body had six or more outbursts.

He says a large focus of education, especially post-covid, is developing trauma-informed practices and supporting students’ social-emotional well-being,

“adapting and saying like how do we move to a more proactive mindset, like how do we identify mental health before it escalates to that level? And I think that bright futures report focusing on the younger ages, is where you start even academically,” said Bratko.

He adds there’s no cookie-cutter way to address each situation, and the school has intervention and support.

“Not only do we need to support the child at school, but we need to support them when they go home. And how do we do that effectively without being the parents because we’re not the parents, but we have resources,” said Bratko.

In response on a statewide level, Vermont’s Department of Mental Health said there are continuing conversations in the statehouse around supporting school-based services.

There’s also funding to help retain the mental health staff that is present, and a state workgroup focused on recruiting.

Staffing shortages are plaguing Vermont’s mental health system at a time when many are looking for help.

As of October 2022, there were 1,077 staffing vacancies out of nearly 6,000 positions that’s a vacancy rate of 18 percent.

Cheryle Wilcox with the department of mental health says the intensity of the work and the pandemic can get exhausting for employees who switch work.

“We are focusing on how we retain folks, we got funding out the door to help with some retention. And then we’ve also been focused through a workgroup, which is a whole other section of work on how to recruit and retain within Human Services because it’s an incredibly rewarding career and people are really dedicated to the work. Yeah, but it’s also challenging,” said Wilcox.

Some of those positions include those who intervene in schools which comes as data from the state shows an uptick in behavioral issues among children.

Copyright 2023 WCAX. All rights reserved.

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Report: Behavioral and emotional issues on the rise among Vt. children - WCAX
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