High school can be one of the most exciting periods in a teenager’s life, but it can also be one of the most stressful. Students are expected to balance academics, extracurricular activities, social relationships, family responsibilities, and future planning. In Illinois, educators, parents, and health professionals are becoming increasingly concerned about the mental health challenges facing high school students. Anxiety, depression, stress, social isolation, bullying, and suicidal thoughts are affecting more teens than ever before, making mental health awareness and support critically important.
According to recent data from the CDC and Illinois education reports, many Illinois high school students report struggling emotionally. In 2023, 38.2% of surveyed Illinois high school students said they felt sad or hopeless for at least two weeks in a row, while 26% reported poor mental health most or all the time. Nearly 19.2% said they had seriously considered attempting suicide.
This is why School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) are a lifeline. These health centers are located inside high schools or on school grounds. They provide services like check-ups, vaccinations, and mental health support. Currently, there are 66 school-based health centers in Illinois. These centers are especially vital in rural communities because students and their communities often find themselves in a healthcare desert, and school-based health centers serve as access points to care.
EverThrive IL staffs the Illinois School-Based Health Alliance, which ensures that children and adolescents are healthy, safe, and ready to learn by advocating for and supporting school-based health centers as school and community assets. The programming includes providing training and technical assistance to school-based health centers in Illinois, sharing resources, advocating for the school-based health care model, and convening and connecting school-based health center staff. We also serve as the state affiliate of the national School-Based Health Alliance.
Since the pandemic, school-based health centers have seen a huge increase in behavioral health needs in children and adolescents. Their mental health was impacted during critical stages of their lives. Many young, generally healthy people put off going to the doctor during the pandemic. This means there is a lot of preventive health care that needs to be caught up on, from well-care visits to vaccinations, and the SBHCs can play a role in addressing it.
According to Advance Illinois, “The COVID-19 pandemic intensified many of these challenges. School closures, remote learning, and reduced social interaction disrupted students’ routines and support systems. Even years later, Illinois schools continue to see increased absenteeism and emotional distress among students. State education reports connect rising absenteeism with worsening mental health concerns.”
Additional social determinants of health, like food, housing, healthcare, and immigration raids, are all examples of things that also impact the mental health of our youth. SBHCs have been supporting students with addressing these needs by providing families with the supportive services and information they need to navigate these issues.
For the past few years, EverThrive IL has partnered with the University of Chicago to conduct a landscape assessment of mental health services in Illinois SBHCs. We surveyed all the SBHCs in Illinois to better understand their staffing, operations, challenges, and opportunities related to mental health services and issued a report with our findings in our 2024 statewide survey on SBHC’s.
This spring, building on those findings, we conducted site visits at select SBHCs, including the Gallatin County SBHC and Glenbrook South SBHC. Through clinic observations and interviews with SBHC staff, school personnel, parents, and young people, we gained deeper insight into experiences with mental health services in school-based settings. These findings will help inform best practices and identify opportunities to strengthen mental health care in SBHCs.
Recently, Kristen Nuyen, Capacity Building Director for EverThrive IL, collaborated with Dr. Volerman and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to develop a poster presentation for the National School-Based Health Alliance conference this summer. The presentation highlighted key findings from the 2024 survey and explored strategies to help school-based health centers build their capacity to address the growing adolescent mental health crisis.
When students have access to the emotional support and mental health services they need, they are better equipped to succeed academically, build healthy relationships, and develop the resilience needed to navigate life’s challenges.
As Illinois continues to address the adolescent mental health crisis, school-based health centers remain a critical part of the solution. By investing in these trusted spaces and expanding access to care, we can help ensure that all young people have the support they need not only to navigate adolescence, but to thrive far into the future.
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