20 Years of School-Based Mental Health: "You’ve got to go there to know there” 

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Change Inc. has been on the forefront of developing and implementing School-Based Mental Health services in the Twin Cities. Our providers are more than on-site therapists. Instead, we see the entire school as our client. Our model focuses on the mental health of students, teachers, staff, parents, and families. This two-part series acknowledges the foundational vision for School-Based Mental Health at Change Inc. and how, over two decades, the organization has become a leader in the work.  

On the first day of school in 2006, students at Edison High School would have seen posters hung up in the halls that said, “If you want to talk, we’re here to listen.” These students in Northeast Minneapolis were starting the year in the wake of a tragedy—a classmate had been shot and killed over Labor Day.

Jody Nelson was at Edison that day with her colleagues, having opened up a classroom for students to come and go as they needed to process the shooting. It wasn’t exactly what they had planned as they embarked on introducing School-Based Mental Health at Edison, but it stands out as an example of their mission at work: to go where the kids are and deliver the care that they need.

Now the Senior Advisor at Change Inc., Jody has been with the organization for nearly 30 years; 20 of those years have been marked by the distinct and impressive growth of School-Based Mental Health in Minnesota. In the two decades since that first day of school at Edison, she’s stewarded Change Inc.’s School-Based Mental Health services with collaboration, deep expertise, and an approach that’s been replicated across the state.

"You’ve got to go there to know there”

From the beginning, the School-Based Mental Health structure has been motivated by accessibility. “There is an issue here of privilege and resources. Being in the therapeutic world, I know who to ask and how to go about finding someone, but that’s not a typical skill of everybody,” Jody says. By bringing the services into the school ecosystem, one barrier to access is removed, and families who wouldn’t otherwise seek therapy are taken care of. Jody says she and her colleagues often quote the author Zora Neale Hurston who once wrote, “You've got to go there to know there.” Jody adds, “Where are the kids? Kids are in schools. We're going where the kids are."

Accessibility is a big part of the equation—if mental health services aren’t in schools, many families wouldn’t seek them out, due to financial cost, the cost of the time spent on the process, and the lack of familiarity with the system. Furthermore, Jody acknowledges that students tend to already be comfortable in their school environment, so adding mental health resources strengthens the ecosystem they already exist in. “It's so important to be able to work with a young person in the web of their own relationships," Jody says. She adds, "there’s data that shows that there are a lot of young people in Minneapolis for whom this is the first time they’ve ever received help. Access is important.”

20 years and counting

As a result of Jody’s leadership alongside many equally passionate and skilled practitioners and allies, Minnesota has become a real leader in School-Based Mental Health. Minneapolis—and Change Inc.— are leading the way. "Being able to work with some of the pioneers of School-Based Mental Health has been just a real joy in my career,” Jody says.

School-Based Mental Health exists in almost every county in Minnesota, supported by sustained partnership from the Department of Human Services, along both party lines. “I see it as a mature program of Change Inc.,” she says.

School-Based Mental Health started 20 years ago at Edison high, and today Change Inc. is in six districts in 53 schools. “As we sometimes say, the school is our client,” Jody says. It’s not just that services are provided to students in each of these schools, but Change Inc. is serious about what Jody calls “care for the caregivers.” It's important once they join a school building, and thus a community, to also spend time uplifting teachers, parents, and each other, to keep the resilience going.