More than 50 students from five area school districts, including Greece and Lyons, spent a day on the Nazareth University campus to learn about various mental health professions including social work, creative arts therapy, music therapy, and psychology.
Thursday’s summit was part of a state program called Grow Your Own. The goal is to create a pipeline within school districts to develop and recruit more mental health professionals.
“It’s just a good opportunity to see themselves as college students, talk to people that are actually in the professions that they’re interested in, and get a better idea of what it looks like,” said Erin Cole, assistant professor in the department of social work.
Brady Bastian is a high school junior in Lyons. He said the summit did ignite his interest in the mental health field.
“There’s a lot of opportunities within the profession,” he said. “It’s very reassuring that there’s so many jobs available, if I choose to partake.”
But the state program is under threat as the Trump administration this week announced it will no longer fund grants helping to prepare and place a reported 14,000 mental health professionals in schools nationwide.
Hennessey Lustica, mental health director for community schools in the Seneca Falls Central School District, said the loss in funding is devastating to the profession, but mostly the kids.
“The workforce shortage is going to explode,” Lustica said. “Kids might not be able to take these classes and to understand what it’s like, the importance of being a mental health professional, and get excited to go to college to do pursue that profession.”
Lustica said the pipeline program has an 87% success rate at recruiting graduates back into the community. Organizers hope to sustain the local program through partnerships with colleges, community agencies, and other districts, she said.