Connecting to the Headlines: St. David’s Center’s Response to the National Mental Health Crisis

An estimated 10-16% of young children experience mental health conditions including PTSD and anxiety (Think Babies, 2022). One in five young people have reported that the pandemic had a significant negative impact on their mental health (NAMI, 2022).

With needs increasing and far outpacing the workforce, St. David’s Center has invested $625,000 in Gala 2022 proceeds in building a highly skilled children’s mental health workforce and expanding services. In the past six months, we hired 30 mental health practitioners and professionals and have begun to invest in deepening their expertise in trauma, autism, and infant and early childhood mental health.

Growing our workforce is the first step in responding to increasing needs. As of this fall, we are growing our services in:

• Hopkins School District’s Harley Hopkins Center, where we are now providing autism treatment to two classrooms of preschool children, increasing our total number of preschool treatment classrooms to 17 across three sites.
• Hopkins and Osseo School Districts where we’re providing School-Linked Mental Health services in additional early childhood and elementary schools.
• Children’s Mental Health Case Management, our program that assists families in building a care plan that can include accessing health insurance, addressing school issues, and identifying additional services that can support the child and family.

Thank you to all who contributed to our 2022 Make Them Shine Gala! You’re making such an important difference to hundreds of children across our community!