Educators collaborate on addressing the youth mental health crisis

WGRZ-TV covered a conference held at UB on Wednesday by the Supporting Mental Health and Advocating for Resources Together (SMART) collaborative to help educators, community leaders and local agencies work together to improve youth mental health in Western New York. “We don’t need everybody to be mental health providers, but we do need people in youth-serving settings to understand what kids need and know how to navigate to get them help,” says Annahita Ball, associate professor in the School of Social Work and SMART steering committee member.

The report also noted that the School of Social Work’s Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care was on hand to provide resources on creating trauma-informed classrooms for all students.