Boston Public Schools training own mental health professionals through special program
BOSTON - School districts across Massachusetts are seeing an increased need for mental health support for their students. At the same time, there is a nationwide shortage of school psychologists, social workers, and counselors. But Boston Public Schools has been ahead of the curve, for years, they have been training their own mental health professionals.
"I'm curious, how is everyone doing today?" That's Dana Engel seated with a group of fifth graders at a table at the Lyndon Pilot School in Jamaica Plain. She's leading a discussion on social emotional skills, but this former teacher isn't a full-time school psychologist, at least not yet. Dana is an intern, finishing up her degree at UMass Boston. "I have really been able to apply what I am learning in the classroom to the real world," she said.
"Having interns allows us to have an extra set of hands," explained Andria Amador, the director of behavioral health services at Boston Public Schools. "As we enter the post-pandemic phase, children are still requiring a great deal of mental health support," Amador said.
Fortunately for Boston, Amador saw this need growing long before the pandemic and created an internship program for mental health workers like psychologists and counselors. The program partners with several universities including UMass Boston. Amador calls it a 'workforce pathway'. "It allows us to ensure that they have high-quality training so when they graduate not only are they trained generically on how to be a school psychologist, but they know our system very well, they know our students," Amador said.
Interns like Dana are supervised by licensed psychologists and while there are some limits to what they can do, they play a key role. "We are working one-on-one. We are also working on emotional management, learning how to deal with big and small emotions and coping skills," Dana said.
"Part of the really essential work that interns do is being another person for a student to bond with, to share their experiences, to feel connected and that's absolutely critical," Amador said.
Each year BPS trains more than 40 school psychologists, 50 social workers and more than 20 school counselors.
Dana is finishing up her internship and is hoping to go to work full-time for Boston Public Schools.
