In response to the critical shortage of mental health professionals in public schools across the country, earlier this year the U.S. Department of Education announced they were awarding more than $188,000,000 to 170 grantees in more than 30 states.

Among the recipients, Florida International University received a $6,000,000 grant to help improve access to mental health services for students throughout Miami-Dade County public schools.

With these federal Dollars, FIU's Project Dig will help recruit and train graduate students to work as school psychologists and social workers.

Joining me now to share about this new initiative is Dr. Andy Pham, director and associate Professor of FIU School Psychology Program and principal investigator of the grant.

Dr. Pham, thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

As we spoke about earlier in the program there is a critical need for mental health professionals and social workers in the school system.

In this case Miami-Dade Public Schools.

Let's talk about the job of social workers in a school setting and why they're just so important.

Absolutely.

So social workers are usually uniquely trained to provide services to support social and psychological needs of students.

That's really the primary goal for all school-based mental health professionals.

So school social workers, they collect information from families about students social and developmental history.

They work with students individually or in groups and they also help manage any crises that might occur in the school.

They handle issues related to trauma, parental divorce, substance misuse, bullying.

So school social workers work alongside professionals, teachers, administrators in a team and they advocate for students' wellbeing.

So they essentially provide the link between home and school community.

So they're necessary in a school setting as they are trained mental health professionals and they can identify concerns earlier on and to provide mental health supports sooner than later.

With so many of the issues you just mentioned, sad to say there is a shortage of these professionals.

How is it impacting students?

Right, so similar to teacher shortages, this puts a strain in the school system in trying to meet children's mental health needs.

Studies have shown that one in five school-aged children may have a diagnosable mental health disorder and the CDC released data from a national survey indicating that one for high school girls reported seriously considering suicide and almost half of LGBTQ students surveyed considering attempting suicide.

And there also have been increases in bullying, students feeling anxious and depressed during and after the pandemic.

So a lot of current mental health professionals are feeling the strain because unfortunately, we are not able to meet the needs of every student if we don't have enough of school social workers and school psychologists in the schools.

Well talk to us about the federal funding received and Project Dig.

What's the goal?

How will it help MDCPS students and FIU grad students and how long will that grant last?

Yeah, so Project Dig, it stands for a Demonstration Innovation Grant.

So it is a five year grant provided by the U.S. Department of Education and it's also part of the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant, which is made possible by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

So this is in collaboration with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, our school psychology program and the school of social work here at FIU.

And the main goal is to recruit and financially support graduate students who are really committed and really excited about coming to FIU to learn the skills to become a mental health service professional, either some school psychologist or school social worker with eventual goal or path to employment with Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

So it's a, a great collaboration between our respective graduate programs and the school district.

That's so nice to hear that they are so excited about it and to go out there and help people who need it, especially children.

What makes this program unique?

Yeah, so in addition to being a a collaborative project with our programs we are able to provide financial supports to graduate students, including tuition waivers.

We're able to provide payment for field experiences, including internships for students in the social work program or within school psychology.

And one of our missions is to ensure that students that we work with are successful.

So particularly those in marginalized communities, those in poverty.

As we know Miami-Dade County Public Schools is a rather diverse community of students and sometimes mental health can be a stigma for many families and so sometimes we have to train our students to know how to navigate some of these barriers to ensure that our graduate students are sensitive to these issues.

And also to identify existing strengths of children that we work with in schools, particularly whose cultural background might be different from our own.

How can grad students apply to be a part of the program?

Yeah, so we do accept applications each year.

If interested search Project DIG FIU, we do have a website with more information about the application process.

If interested people are wanting to apply to a particular graduate program, whether school psychology or school social work, it does provide links to our respective graduate programs.

My contact information's also on the webpage, so a lot of the information can be found on that website.

What would you tell people who may be interested in pursuing a career similar to this in mental health or social work to pursue that career?

What would be your message?

So our message would be if you're interested working with children, with families and in order to ensure that students are successful, I think this program would be for you.

We're able to provide as much support as we can.

As we know, graduate school can be quite expensive and so we're doing our best to alleviate some of those costs so that a lot of our children and youth are successful in schools.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for joining us today Dr. Pham, and all that you do.

Thank you for having me again.