New Jersey’s public colleges and research universities can apply for some of the $15 million allocated for mental health services by the state as students continue to face rising rates of suicide and depression — a trend widely believed to have worsened during the pandemic.
The funds come from the American Rescue Plan and are also available to independent colleges that receive state aid, said the Murphy administration.
The plan provided the third and largest distribution of COVID-19 relief funds to states in 2021 to address the pandemic’s setbacks.
In New Jersey, another $10 million from the fund will be used to set up free statewide telehealth counseling services available to all college students.
Colleges generally welcomed the news about the funding, which will be awarded based on student enrollment. Bergen Community College in Paramus has seen an uptick in student mental health needs during the pandemic and will be applying for the funds, administrators said.
“I believe every school, hospital and private therapist out there did [see an uptick]. Our first semester back on campus [fall 2021], we had a 30% increase in first-time personal counseling appointments,” said Jennifer Migliorino-Reyes, assistant vice president of student affairs.
State agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called attention to a mental health “emergency” among youth and schoolchildren in 2020, citing steadily rising rates of suicide between 2010 and 2020. By 2018, suicide was the second leading cause of death among those ages 10 to 24, said the American Academy of Pediatrics. And New Jersey was one of five states out of 14 that saw an absolute increase in the number of adolescent suicides in 2020, reported JAMA Pediatrics, though it is still unclear whether these are long-term effects.
Undergraduate enrollments dropped by 560,000, a 3.6% decline, in 2020, compared with the year before, reported a 2021 study by the federal government on the impact of COVID-19 on students. The numbers were highest among community colleges that disproportionately serve students with the fewest resources. Students were “leaving higher education — or not entering at all, losing jobs, taking fewer classes, juggling caregiving responsibilities, and concerned about their financial well-being and work opportunities.”
There is no question that this is a good use of funds that could save lives, said Sheila Reynertson, a senior policy analyst at the think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, but is the government prepared to sustain it beyond December 2026, when the federal relief money expires?
“The need for mental health funding will long outlast these federal dollars, so lawmakers must be prepared to maintain this investment with state funding in future years,” said Reynertson, whose organization also publishes research advocating for vulnerable and minority populations.
NJ special education:Plan to expand special education hasn’t gone as hoped. Why so many were shut out
Another question is whether the state has a plan to track how effective these programs will be and whether they will lead to other financial obligations. The Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, which manages these grants, will track accountability through a detailed grant application and semiannual progress reports filed by colleges. However, outside experts like Reynertson have called for more transparency and public input into how the state prioritizes and allocates relief money, saying there should be “clawback provisions” for money that is misused.
The grant funding comes from a one-time provision called Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the American Rescue Plan. Public health is one possible use of the funds laid out by the federal government. The funds can also be spent on recovering lost revenue for government services, essential worker pay, and investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure. The Murphy administration has allocated large sums of relief money in these areas, such as $300 million to water infrastructure and $170 million to home lead paint remediation.
State departments received a total of $55 million for 2023 for youth mental health, and its programs support Gov. Phil Murphy’s “Strengthening Youth Mental Health” initiative, said Christi Peace, a spokesperson for the governor’s office. Murphy adopted this initiative in July as a platform after he was named chair of the National Governors Association.
The $15 million grants and the $10 million for telehealth will address access to counseling services. The state budget has also allocated $3.5 million for the Department of Education to train public school staff in managing student anxiety and stress through the DREAMS program. Another $2.7 million went to a Teen Mental Health First Aid Pilot program, $2.4 million toward peer counseling for college students and $1.2 million to the Society for Prevention of Teen Suicide.
Program funds are divided among the state Education, Children and Families, Higher Education and Human Services departments.
Need for mental health support in colleges
Colleges have seen a rise in the need for mental health support for students during the pandemic, compared with before 2020. The number of students served by Rutgers Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services, or CAPS, in New Brunswick increased by 18.8% between 2020-21 and 2021-22. On-call and crisis appointments increased by 78% when students returned to campus in 2021, compared with when services were remote, said a spokesperson for the university.
Trades vs. college:NJ lawmakers advance education bills that focus on trade jobs to create work pipeline
Unrelated to the new funding, Montclair State University said it previously used $300,000 from COVID relief to support additional mental health needs, to hire staff and counselors. Bergen Community College used $200,000 to expand its student support services. That meant adding more on-demand counseling staff for in-person and virtual services. It expanded its food pantry to offer essential items other than food, renaming it the Bergen Cares Center, and opened Threads, a free clothing space that offers formal wear for job interviews and daily wear.
Passaic County Community College implemented a campaign called “In Crisis? You are Not Alone” on its campuses and increased its outreach and direct care to students by referring them to community resources. There, too, staff members observed that a strategy of addressing emotional and basic needs helped students persist, said a spokesperson.
“In many ways, this money helped us reevaluate the services offered for the health and well-being of our students,” said Migliorino-Reyes, of Bergen Community College. It showed there is a need for increased services beyond the federal relief funds, she said.
Bergen will apply for the newly announced grant funding to expand its services to after-hours and hire a substance abuse counselor.
Funding details
Colleges will have to identify partners to collaborate with before they can apply for grant funding; the deadline is Jan. 31. The total award amount will be calculated based on student enrollment at each college and a flat dollar value that accounts for the college’s share of enrollment in its sector. An additional $21,739 is available to each college in grants for professional development.
Funding for these programs was set aside in the 2023 fiscal year budget, but programs will become available during the course of the year.
New Jersey’s youth mental initiative is organized across four categories:
- Access to Services: $34.3 million ― $15 million for mental health provider grants for institutions of higher education, $10 million to telehealth mental health supports, $5 million to Assertive Community Treatment Pilot and $4.3 million for COVID respite services for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- Mental Health Care Delivery and Systems: $7.5 million ― $1 million to higher education mental health professional development and $6.5 million for School Linked Services Federal Revenue Planning to make sure New Jersey is maximizing federal revenues in its delivery of mental health services in schools.
- Awareness and Resilience: $8.1 million ― $3.6 million for teen mental health through DREAMS, $3.3 million to strengthen educator and staff training for supporting youth mental health and $1.2 million for the Society for Prevention of Teen Suicide.
- Empowered Peer Supports: $6.6 million ― $2.7 million for Teen Mental Health First Aid Pilot for high schools, $1.5 million for Mental Health First Aid training for higher education institutions and $2.4 million for higher education peer counseling.
Independent colleges that can apply for these grants are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Centenary University, Drew University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Monmouth University, Pillar College, Rider University, Saint Elizabeth University, Saint Peter’s University, Seton Hall University and Stevens Institute of Technology. The program is also available to the state’s community colleges and public universities.
