School mental health services are expected to get a boost from new money the Legislature appropriated late last year after a year that saw a number of mass shootings in schools nationally.
Many public school districts and school-based health centers are expected to tap into $30 million in new state mental health funds, funding that Debbie Brinson, as interim executive director of the School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan, says is vitally important to address unmet needs at more than 1,500 schools.
“Lots of kids at schools don’t have access to mental health services,” said Brinson, who also is CEO of Honor Community Health, a federally qualified health center in Pontiac. “Establishing mental health services in school health centers is long overdue.”
