Kids Healthy Minds Initiative

The Kids Healthy Minds Initiative (KHMI) is a robust, school based, mental health education program.

Program Goals

• Increase awareness about the mental health crisis plaguing our youth
• Help school staff and parents recognize the early warning signs of mental illness in kids, to support early detection before it reaches crisis stage
• Assist teachers in supporting students struggling with emotional or behavioral issues
• Educate teachers on how to build healthy minds in the classroom
• Educate students about mental illness
• Work to end the stigma surrounding mental illness

Today’s Youth Mental Health Crisis

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, 20% of youth in the US were being treated for a mental health condition, while countless others struggled with undetected or untreated mental illness. Due to the negative impact of the pandemic on the mental health of many school-age children, these numbers are rising at rapid rates and experts expect this negative impact to last for several years. The CDC has reported significant increases in serious suicidal thoughts in adolescents compared to pre-pandemic rates. In September 2020, the CDC reported that suicide rates among young people ages 10-24 increased 54% in the U.S. and 64% in Massachusetts over the past decade.

These statistics are staggering; we must act to help our kids.

The KHMI School-Based Program

Teachers are a first line of defense in tackling the youth mental health crisis. They interact daily with their students and can recognize when behaviors or work patterns change, when a child suddenly becomes anxious or scared or is unable to focus. While teachers are key to identifying these problems, many tell us that they aren’t confident in their ability to address them.

KHMI offers two different mechanisms of support for schools:

Workshops: Professional development workshops are led by a Licensed mental health clinicians and offered virtually.

Sample workshop topics include:

• Kids mental health: Identifying problems early and building healthy minds in the classroom
• Providing support in times of uncertainty
• Coping through crisis

Student Support Teams (SSTs):

• A SST is a positive, team oriented approach team to identify interventions to assist students with a wide range concerns, whether academic, emotional or behavioral.
• KHMI will provide the infrastructure and training needed to establish and implement a SST, to best support teachers requesting assistance with student related problems.
• For schools with limited or no in-house mental health services, KHMI will provide a licensed mental health counselor to support the SST.
• EANS or grant funding may be used to support the SST development process.

KHMI was formed in 2018 as a collaboration between Franciscan Children’s and the Archdiocese of Boston to support Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston.