another step toward combating the National Youth Mental Health crisis at a rare special meeting held today by the Senate education committee lawmakers invited superintendents Educators and experts to share their Insight on how to curb The Staggering rise in teen suicide rates and the many more youth who are suffering from non-fatal forms of mental distress now the legislature is looking for input on how to better support schools and families senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports our students are in crisis they need us and The Time Is Now teen suicide experts described an unprecedented spike in mental health crises to the Senate education committee chair vinegar Paul called this hearing after the highly publicized suicide last month of 14 year old Adriana cush a student at Central Regional High School lawmakers asked School superintendents if perhaps current reporting regulations need to change change do you think there's something as it relates to state laws that could have prevented that what is in place gives you a clear path to communication with the involved parties and those that need the information and it's about diligence and ensuring that gets done but how will superintendent Joe asola said the support system does suffer from a lack of cohesion we're disconnected in terms of mental health and supporting our youngsters we're operating in silos and I know you don't have a magic wand nor do I but we must start to figure out how to coordinate services and bring the mental health experts to the students to the staff quite frankly Advocates described a rising tide of teens and emotional crisis the CDC found suicides among 15 to 24 year olds Rose five percent among females seven percent among males from 2020 to 2021 and that a growing number of teens are persistently sad or hopeless three in five females reported those feelings in 2021 that's up 60 percent over a decade I've never seen it like this before our children are struggling at levels that are unbelievable but experts across the board described obstacles to care like shortages of School nurses and counselors the optimum student to counselor ratios 1 to 250 in New Jersey it averages one to five hundred some schools don't even have counselors there are thousands of students in the state of New Jersey who do not have access to a school counselor I think that some you know unfortunately over time with budget restrictions there have been difficult decisions that have had to be made meanwhile mental health treatments expensive and overbooked emergency rooms across the state report a surge in Teen Mental Health crises Dr Eric El Serra says Hackensack Meridian health seen a 49 surge in cases it's something I haven't seen in my lifetime you know I've been doing this for about 20 years and to see that many children coming in for all sorts of mental health disorders is quite alarming we need more beds and we need more services outside the hospital we have some real problems in the field with having uh the the need the cometic hair that students need families need and having direct access to those Services speakers pleaded for more resources more support and more funding and ask lawmakers to keep that in mind as the legislature crafts a new state budget at the State House in Trenton I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news thank you [Music]