Across the country, studies have found that teenagers' mental health took a nosedive during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it still hasn't recovered. That's leading educational leaders in the Ypsilanti area to find ways to better support student mental health. 

This fall, thanks to grant funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Ypsilanti-based health nonprofit The Corner Health Center (Corner) deployed a nurse and a social worker to provide services through a new wellness center at Washtenaw International High School (WIHI) and Washtenaw International Middle Academy (WIMA). 

Additionally, Corner is offering a social and emotional health program called Expanding, Enhancing Emotional Health (E3) to students in the county's virtual school, WAVE, through an on-site therapist and a program manager. 

WIHI/WIMA Principal Nhu Do says she saw a "growing need, not just in our school but nationwide, for mental health and social emotional support for our students."

"We know that if students aren't taking care of their physical, social-emotional, and mental health needs, learning cannot occur," she says.

Corner's E3 program previously served Belleville High School in the Van Buren Public Schools district. However, Van Buren Public Schools received grant funding to establish their own full-service health center, so the district no longer needed the partnership with Corner, according to Corner Executive Director Alex Plum. That allowed Corner to transfer the E3 program to WAVE.

Both Plum and school officials say the new partnership is an ideal fit. Corner, which serves youth ages 12-25, got its name from its origin as a school-based health clinic in a corner classroom at Ypsilanti High School in 1981. Plum says Corner has always put an emphasis on "reaching people where they are," but society has been catching on to that approach, so school-based health programs are growing.
Doug CoombeWIHI/WIMA Principal Nhu Do.
"If we can eliminate barriers and it's truly the young person's choice to access care, then we have done our job," Plum says. "That's why school-based programs are so important. They're predicated on low or no barriers, and there's no wrong door to access care."

Plum says Corner already had a "great relationship" with WIHI/WIMA because several young people from WIHI are part of Corner's youth leadership council. 

"We have consistently had student leaders who have been a part of Corner's leadership programs, and one who is now serving on the advisory council for the new wellness center," Do notes.

That student is Hasini Anand, a junior at WIHI, who has been on Corner's youth leadership council for four years. Anand became involved with the council via virtual meetings during the early months of the pandemic while she was looking for a way to stay connected to other young people despite being physically separated.

After creating a workshop series and making advocacy booklets and academic goodie bags for area freshmen, she says she realized, "Whoa, we get to make actual change. I didn't realize youth could do all this stuff." 

She's also hoping the new wellness center and mental health supports will make a change at her school. Anand says she feels she and her peers "took the whole conversation around mental health in a 180."

"I feel we're a lot more open about mental health and discuss it more," she says. "What we don't have more of is enough resources out there for people. We hear all the time about the waitlist people need to get on to see a therapist."
Doug CoombeWIHI junior and Corner advisory council member Hasini Anand.
She says she thinks the new program will be "super impactful."

"For one reason, it's great to have more mental health professionals in the building who can help support students," she says. 

She also says some students who might not feel comfortable confiding in a teacher or other school staffer might be willing to open up to someone affiliated with Corner.

"They might think they'll get in trouble if they tell a school counselor. That's not true, but some people might … have that idea in their head," Anand says. But since Corner has a reputation for nonjudgmental care, she says a student might feel it's a "safe space." 

Plum calls the partnership "a tremendous opportunity" to provide judgment-free health care for adolescents, for whom he says it can be challenging to provide affordable care. Plum says young people are generally pretty healthy and don't need much treatment for chronic conditions.

"So, for Corner, our investment in adolescents isn't going to see cost savings right now, but our society will see that payoff 60 years from now because of the investments we're making today," Plum says.

He notes that bringing the E3 program to WAVE is removing barriers to care for a demographic of youth "who are marginalized and for whom traditional school has not been the best fit."
Doug CoombeWIHI/WIMA Principal Nhu Do with students Obinna Okammor, Nome Berman, Hasini Anand, Nadav Dueber, and Charlotte Stone.
"I think we're really going to make a difference there and at WIHI," Plum says.

Do notes that the partnership builds upon the schools' existing support structure for student mental health.

"Openness around discussion around mental health … is not peripheral. It's a central part of our values," Do says.

WIHI/WIMA already provided three counselors and a student support services coordinator, but Do says they've never had "a full-time clinician to meet with students who don't have access to therapy outside of school."

"And we've never had a nurse," she says. "That's entirely new, and we're beyond grateful for that resource."

Do says her school has worked hard to train staff on mental health stigma, and that shows in young people's growing openness to talking about mental health issues.

"When I started having conversations with adults, I didn't even realize there used to be a stigma about mental health because of how much conversation there is about it now," Anand says. "I think that's pretty amazing, that people are going to grow up without ever knowing there was a stigma."

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

All photos by Doug Coombe.