EDC and School Districts Partner to Protect Youth Mental Health

In May, EDC joins the nation in marking Mental Health Awareness Month and Mental Health Action Day (May 15). These are key observances in light of widely shared concerns about a mental health crisis—especially youth mental health—in the United States and calls to action by the White House, which seeks to respond to rising rates of mental health disorders, as well as by senate and congressional bipartisan mental health caucuses.

To address this crisis, EDC leads strategic initiatives to promote mental health and prevent suicide nationwide. In one key strand of this work, EDC is supporting school district leaders in strengthening systems to proactively improve student well-being and outcomes.

Through our results-oriented Multi-Tiered Suicide Prevention (MTSP) for Schools initiative led by Richard Fournier and Shawna Hite-Jones, EDC is currently partnering with 35 districts in four states (Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, and South Carolina) reaching thousands of students.

“So many parents are concerned about their children’s mental health and well-being,” says Fournier, EDC’s director of Education & Wellbeing in EDC Solutions. “We created MTSP for Schools to bring proven suicide prevention strategies into places where they could make a significant, large-scale difference.”

Fournier and Hite-Jones have seen the work have a real impact on the preparedness of schools and communities to prevent suicide and address their students’ mental health needs. In Indiana, for example, Hite-Jones provided technical assistance to one rural school district, Tippecanoe School Corporation, that is dedicated to taking action to improve youth mental health. The work was funded by North Central Health Services.

“Tippecanoe was making great progress in advancing their goals to protect youth,” says Hite-Jones, who is a senior manager of prevention initiatives at EDC. “We partnered with them at a key time and helped them assess strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that informed their development of a new set of protocols around suicide prevention.”

The new protocols were approved by the superintendent and are now in place throughout the district. The protocols have been “met with a lot of gratitude by administrators” and have received support throughout the district,” says Megan Ulrich, a Tippecanoe School Corporation mental health liaison and member of the district’s 12-person MTSP planning team who worked closely with Hite-Jones.

In addition to close collaboration with school district leaders and supporting the design of new policies and protocols, EDC’s MTSP work involves forging community partnerships, actively promoting factors that minimize suicide risk, and providing crisis support.

“We are so honored to carry out this work with school districts,” says Fournier. “Together, we can support communities in making sure that every young person has the support they need.”

To learn more about EDC’s MTSP work, contact Richard Fournier (rfournier@edc.org).