2025 Annual Report

COMMUNITY

child facing mental health challenges or coming from a background of trauma—especially when those students might be exhibiting challenging behaviors,” Harwell said. By practicing better self-care, school personnel may be more likely to recognize that the child who’s acting out may actually be in need of support, she added. The sessions, whatever the topic, are opportunities for discussion among school staff and Children’s mental health experts. “Training sessions include conversations about intervention strategies and guidance on how to help and support students within the school setting who may be experiencing mental health challenges,” Harwell said. Ultimately, they hope to help educators understand how to handle these issues as they arise. Right now, the team is offering training sessions to teachers and counselors. Eventually, they may offer them to support staff or administrators, who often develop close relationships with students, Harwell says. “Think about bus drivers, for example. In many cases, they’re the first person to see a student each morning,” she pointed out. “Some students have the same bus driver for years, so they get to know them and may share their feelings or thoughts. This gives them insight into the child’s concerns or emotional state.” The PATHS program exists because of a HRSA grant awarded to ADMH. The grant is a Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program (PMHCA) grant, which Children’s helped write. The hospital receives the majority of the money awarded through the grant, which was originally approved in 2018, then extended in 2023. “These grants have been monumental to the building of this program and really sustaining it thus far,” Harwell said. MORE ON THE HRSA GRANT

With the initial grant, Children’s started PATHS and began enrolling primary care practices. Today, 128 practices are enrolled. “The funding has been instrumental in being able to do that,” Harwell added. The partnership with ADMH also has been vital. The organization offers guidance and facilitates collaboration with the other states and organizations through the HRSA network of PMHCA awardees. “This continually challenges us to look at how we’re doing, what we do and how we can continue to improve our program and our processes.” The program’s next improvement may involve expansion into rural emergency departments (EDs). PATHS leaders already have initiated conversations with a few around Alabama. Harwell says the PATHS team hopes to offer access to their consultation lines to extend support if the ED has a child who arrives with mental health concerns. The goal, Harwell says, is not to intervene in situations of acute crisis—that is outside the role of PATHS. “But if a child is in a rural ED and needs to stay for a few days due to, say, lack of available beds, and there are concerns about mild to moderate mental health issues, we want to offer consultation services to support that child’s care,” Harwell said. As the PATHS team keeps an eye toward the future, they’re also aware of how far they’ve come. Mental health care is difficult in Alabama—the non-profit Mental Health America (MHA) in 2019, the year PATHS was founded, ranked the state 7th in prevalence of mental illness among youth and 45th in youth access to care. By 2024, when MHA released its most recent rankings, Alabama had dropped to 14th in youth prevalence of mental illness and risen to 36th in youth access to care. Multiple factors have played a role in the improvements, and Harwell says PATHS is one. “Our state has really taken steps forward,” she said. “I happen to believe the PATHS program has helped with that.” ● THE NEXT STEP THE IMPACT

128 Practices across the state are currently enrolled in the PATHS program

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2025 ACADEMIC ANNUAL REPORT