Lewis & Clark College from the Department of Education to support (Advancing Multilingual Practices and Learning with Inclusion for Youth).
The funds will support efforts to address mental health workforce shortages in Oregon schools.
, School Psychology Program Director joins the Exchange along with , Associate Professor of School Psychology and Assessment Coordinator.
Project AMPLIFY addresses a pressing and at times deadly mental health crisis faced by Oregon students, schools, families, and communities.
National studies report that 1 in 6 youth between the ages of 6 to 17 experience a mental health disorder each year, and half of all lifetime mental illness is presented by age 14.
In the last decade, there has been a 40% increase in mental, emotional, developmental, and behavioral disorders, and suicidal behaviors in high school students. School psychologists are on the frontlines of this mental health crisis and are often the only access young people have to mental health care.
But Oregon has a shortage of school psychologists, who undergo advanced training and must meet state licensing requirements that provide them with specialized skills that school counselors or other school staff do not have. Oregon schools are particularly in need of school psychologists who are multilingual and who have cultural competency to support the ethnic, racial, linguistic, and cultural diversity in our schools.
