At Liberty Hill Academy in North Charleston, students pop in and out of the school clinic all day long to see their nurse Lauren Sailor.
“If the kids are not getting medicine from me, they’re coming over for a hug,” she said.
Many of the students at Liberty Hill need extra emotional support. It’s an alternative school with the Charleston County School District where staff works with students to identify the root cause of behavior problems. Sailor said in children, bad behavior is usually a cry for help.
Millions of young people are affected by mental health conditions including ADHD, conduct disorders, and depression and anxiety. Research shows that one in six school-aged children experience a mental health disorder each year. These conditions can be successfully treated through medication management and psychotherapy.
Kristy Smith is manager of school-based behavioral health services at the Medical University of South Carolina. In partnership with the MUSC Institute of Psychiatry, she provides both behavioral health therapy and medication management to children in schools throughout South Carolina, including at Liberty Hill. The program offers both in-person counseling and virtual care through telehealth.
“The earlier that we can identify what behavioral health issues that students are struggling with, the more likely that we are to be able to teach them coping skills and ways to be resilient- and that’s going to lead to long term success,” Smith said.
Early intervention leads to less hospitalizations for young people, less treatment over time, increased self-esteem, increased motivation, and just more success in schools, she said.
After Nurse Sailor discovered how successful the school-based behavioral telehealth program was through her job, she decided to enroll two of her sons into the program. Her sons, ages 8 and 7, receive telehealth services from their own school which means Sailor doesn’t have to leave work to take them to an appointment.
“As a mom that has been so beneficial to me because I don’t know that I could do it otherwise,” Sailor said.