Students report better mental health locally, but endure high rates of suicide and substance abuse compared to nation
The Colorado Department of Education announced in a news release on Thursday that the state received a $1.6 million yearly grant for the next five years from the United States Department of Education.
Director of Aspen Family Connections Katherine Sand said if Aspen School District is eligible, they will apply for the new state grant funding to improve their mental health resources.
"We never want to neglect an opportunity to improve the situation of our students," Sand said. Family Connections, a department of Aspen School District, provides students and families with emotional support, academic resources, financial assistance, and more.
The funding will help support youth experiencing mental health challenges by addressing Colorado's shortage of school-based mental health professionals, according to the release.
"This is particularly important because children and youth in Colorado continue to face rising mental health challenges, with suicide rates and substance use among the highest in the nation," wrote Colorado Department of Education Communications Director Jeremy Meyer in an email to The Aspen Times.
The 2022 Colorado suicide rate for 10 to 14 year olds was twice the national average, at 4.6 per 100,000, according to a 2023 study by the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention. Colorado was recently ranked in the top 12 states nationally for high school suicide attempts and reported suicidal thoughts, and the top five for high school use of marijuana and alcohol, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Meyer said that youth in need of mental health resources have difficulty finding help, especially in rural areas around the state.
"Schools are uniquely positioned to bridge this gap," Meyer said.
With the grant money, the Colorado Department of Education hopes to add 1,375 school-based mental-health professionals over the next five years, according to their grant abstract. They aim to respecialize 75 clinical workers, recruit 100 out-of-state school based mental health professionals, and retain 100 culturally responsive supervisors per year.
"This grant is an important resource for our state's school districts to help them expand access to the services our students need to thrive," Colorado Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova said in the release.
The Department will work with school districts to identify schools in need of funding and will issue stipends to help train school-based mental-health professionals, Meyer said.
For Aspen, Sand said she can't speak to how the school district would apply the funding, but that different groups throughout the community endure disproportionate stress and pressure.
"For example, our Latino population has more pronounced, more serious mental health challenges than their counterparts," she said. "And that is something that really requires attention and, really, specialist attention."
She said Aspen Family Connections has seen an uptick in food insecurity in the community and has had more people coming to them in search of financial resources.
"We have a lot of young people living in our community who appear to have a great deal, and not everybody's in that situation," she said. "Their parents may be working several jobs."
While there is much to be done to address youth mental health in the valley, Pitkin County students have reported having fewer thoughts of suicide and fewer periods of debilitating sadeness and hopelessness since the pandemic, according to data by the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey.
Between 2013 and 2021, youth residents of Pitkin, Grand, Eagle, Summit, and Garfield counties reported feeling debilitating and prolonged sadness at increasing rates, culminating in 2021 with 40.1% of youth having experienced debilitating sadness within a year.
In 2023 this rate dropped to 24.9%, the lowest reported sadness since 2013.
"The pandemic was a very understandably low point," Sand said. "Since that time world conditions have improved. However, more importantly ... is that our school systems and our community organizations that work with young people and our collaborative systems have greatly focused on prevention."
They've introduced a number of resources into the schools, such as the Hope Squad, a peer-to-peer mental health support group that works to prevent suicide and encourages inter-student discussions about emotional well being, she said. Each school also has a clinician working with students from Aspen Hope Center, which helps individuals in emotional crisis.
Sand said the school district will also apply in January for additional grant funding from the State of Colorado to reduce student vaping and promote positive peer groups and social norms.