Kevin Canfield
Tulsa World Staff Writer
Tulsa leaders announced on Thursday the largest infusion of competitive mental health funding for children’s services in the city’s history.
The $13 million federal investment — $9 million of which will go to Tulsa Public Schools and $4 million to the city — is being matched by $3 million in local contributions from community partners.
The grants were awarded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
“As many of you know, our society is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis when it comes to the mental well-being of our young people,” Zack Stoycoff, executive director of Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, said during a City Hall press conference announcing the grants. “Following the onset of the pandemic, Tulsa hospitals reported up to an 84% annual increase in the number of children entering emergency rooms with suicidal thoughts or other mental health crises.
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“At the same time, we saw a 117% increase in psychiatric admissions in Tulsa for our young people.”
Stoycoff noted the significance of Thursday’s announcement, saying it was “just the second time a community has received both of these signature federal grant programs in one funding cycle.”
The federal funding will be provided to TPS over five years and to the city over four, with much of the money to be contributed to community partners.
Mayor G.T. Bynum said the city will use its federal funding to augment the work it has already undertaken with community partners. The city is in the process of hiring its first chief mental health officer, and Bynum said the federal funding will help fund another position.
“This grant is now going to allow our chief mental health officer to also have an additional staff person who is solely focused on children’s mental health,” he said.
Krystal Reyes, chief resilience officer for the city of Tulsa, said the city established a working group to look at the community’s mental health needs and offer recommendations, some of which will be used to inform how the grant money is spent.
“We’re going to be contracting with, likely, the Oklahoma Family Network for a lead family coordinator,” Reyes said. “And the rest of the contracts will be to support additional services like outpatient care, community services, in-home intensive therapy, crisis intervention and stabilization.”
Interim TPS Superintendent Ebony Johnson said the federal funding would put the district in a better position to serve all students and their families and provide targeted services to those who need more support.
“For all students, this includes universal screening (with parental permission), mental health promotion, and prevention services,” Johnson said. “For specific students needing additional support, this could include small group therapies, family programs and substance-abuse (disorder) education.
“And for students in crisis, this work focuses on having families (and) people in partnerships in place to provide the specialized care that they need.”
According to TPS-specific data from the 2021-22 Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment, 64.1% of students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 reported moderate or high psychological distress, and 83.1% reported having moderate or high depressive symptoms.
The anonymous survey also found that 18.5% of surveyed students had seriously considered suicide, 15.6% had planned for suicide and 11.0% had attempted suicide.
Johnson said TPS had begun assessing and preparing for the mental health crisis afflicting young people even before applying for the federal grant.
“In 2021 it’s estimated that less than half of youth experiencing severe emotional disturbance were served through the state-funded behavioral health system,” Johnson said. “That’s approximately 7,000 Tulsa youth that year with severe and potentially untreated mental health needs.
“There’s a reason you’ve heard about a mental health crisis for our young people. At Tulsa Public, we’re responsive to our students’ needs, but it takes a village to solve a crisis. And currently, capacity limitations mean that the funding and personnel expansion made possible by this grant are critical as it is sustaining or expanding existing partnerships.”
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