Mental Health Support Now at Summer Camps

Summer camps provide outdoor fun for kids, but the past two years have been far from carefree. Campers have arrived with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues stemming from pandemic stress. And that has proven taxing for camp staff. To help, the Department of Education (DOE) has teamed up with the NH Community Behavioral Health Association (CBHA), which represents the state’s 10 community mental health centers, to offer mental health support for summer camps this season.

Jodie Lubarksy, vice president of clinical operations—youth and family services at Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, says the DOE approached CBHA to provide training and support to camps in the state. “It’s an opportunity for us to talk about mental health symptoms or needs that might present for a young child in a camp environment, signs for staff to be aware of and ways they might support a young person and connect them with professional care when needed,” she says.

Lubarksy says the CBHA created DOE-approved training curriculum and crafted a staffing plan to be available to camps. She says camp staffers have to be more attuned as even a child having fun may be dealing with issues that are not obvious.

“We think about kids returning to camp after masking protocols, trying to find their place in the [new] normal,” she says.

“Moving back into social settings, maybe they still feel some safety and security around wanting to mask. We remind the counselors: If you have 10 kids in your group, they are responding to this return to normalcy in 10 different ways.”

The past two years included a state of emergency with everyone at home all the time, and families are just starting to separate from each other. It is not unexpected that children will have anxiety. If someone displays behavioral issues, there may be something going on that needs to be identified to better support that young camper, Lubarksy says.

The centers in each region of the state have done a mass mailing to all state-licensed camps to offer the training and support and have already heard from camps to explore those supports, says Lubarksy.