The Mississippi K-12 Mental Health Task Force held its third set of meetings on Wednesday, August 7, and Thursday, August 8. You can watch the livestream of the meetings on the Senate YouTube channel.
These were the presenters and their topics:
August 7
Phaedre Cole, Executive Director
Life Help/Region 6 CMHC
Topic 1: Relationship between the CMHCs and K-12, community colleges, and IHLs.
Topic 2: Identifying gaps in services/training for children and adolescents and identifying possible solutions.
Crystal Brewer, Chair
Dr. Ebonee Magee-Dorsey
Assistant Chair, Magnolia State School Counselor Association
Topic 1: Role of school counselors in addressing mental health needs of K-12 students.
Topic 2: Identifying challenges and possible solutions.
Dr. Hannah Allen
Assistant Professor of Public Health and Director of the Substance Use and & Mental Health Research Lab
Dr. Erica Montgomery
Program Director of the Counselor Education Department, University of Mississippi
Topic 1: Relationship between addiction/drugs and the mental health of children and adolescents.
Topic 2: Identifying challenges and possible solutions.
Tammy Hill
Project Manager, Health Program, National Conference of State Legislators
Topic: A national perspective of states’ action steps in recent years (legislation) to address the decline or challenges related to children and adolescents’ mental health.
August 8
Sheriff Thomas E. Tuggle II
Sheriff of Desoto County, Miss.
Topic: The role of law enforcement and school resource officers and the connection to children and adolescent mental health at all levels.
Michael O’Neil
Founder and CEO, Get Well Network Inc.
Topic: National perspective about Get Well’s solutions working with partners like Canopy in Mississippi.
Mental Health Task Force Member Roundtable
Topic: Task Force members (non-legislators) who wished to testify publicly gave a five-minute statement to include relevant experiences or possible solutions.
We encourage anyone interested in supporting student mental health, especially students and their families, to watch these recordings and attend upcoming task force meetings in person or virtually. We also urge you to share your recommendations with the task force. You can email them to MHTF@peer.ms.gov.
The Mississippi State Legislature passed Senate Bill 2727 during its 2024 regular session. This law establishes the Mississippi K-12 Mental Health Task Force for 2024. The law requires the Task Force to review and recommend to the legislature regarding available resources and gaps in resources to address students’ mental health in grades K-12 and through the community college and university systems.
