School-Based Mental Health Professionals Responses to COVID-19

Background and Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic presented a myriad of mental health challenges for school-aged children and adolescents. Further, the school system itself was placed under tremendous strain as schools negotiated the transition to virtual school, the creation of hybrid school models, and the eventual return to in-person, socially distanced education. Previous research has documented that school-based mental health professionals (SBMHPs) already struggled with role ambiguity and feelings of marginalization, isolation, and frustration in their roles before the pandemic began; however, the impact of the pandemic on the role of SBMHPs is yet to be studied. Therefore, this study examined the impact of COVID-19 on SBMHPs both professionally and personally.

Methods: Over 14 hours of ethnographic observations of professional meetings with SBMHPs and 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with SBMHPs were conducted in the fall and winter of 2020. All of those interviewed had a Master’s degree and were either licensed social workers (50%) or licensed counselors (50%). 60% of participants identified as White, 30% as Black, and 10% as more than one race. Further, 20% of the sample also identified as Hispanic/Latinx. The average age of participants was 34 years old. Participants were purposively recruited and 100% of those approached for an interview agreed to participate. Interviews asked participants to recount their experiences working as SBMHPs during COVID-19. Interviews were conducted over video-conferencing platforms, recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded by theme.

Findings: Participants highlighted the major changes they experienced in their roles since COVID-19. SBMHPs devoted significantly more time to meeting the basic needs of students and supporting attendance and academic compliance than before the pandemic. Further, the nature of this support changed to accommodate the new challenges of virtual school. In addition, while SBMHPs spent a comparable amount of time in direct counseling and crisis response as before the pandemic, these services also drastically changed. SBMHPs learned how to transfer their clinical skills to the changing environment while simultaneously responding to unforeseen challenges around engagement, privacy, scheduling, safety precautions, and an overburdened community mental health system. Finally, SBMHPs described the personal challenges of working from home, feeling underappreciated in their work, and managing personal anxiety and loss while also supporting students.

Conclusion and Implications: SBMHPs in this sample were among the first-responders in the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the early transition to virtual schools, SBMHPs not only continued to provide services, but negotiated tremendous changes within their personal and professional lives to maintain service continuity. SBMHPs found themselves providing tremendous care for students, their families, and school staff, but often did not receive recognition or support themselves. Through this research, SBMHPs were able to reflect on their own resilience in the face of a global pandemic and share their stories of both struggle and triumph. This research not only provides an important window into an unprecedented point in history, but it also gives a voice to those who put their own needs aside to meet the needs of the community.