Local physician assistant partners with AAPA for mental health education in US schools

Erin Crown started the Pennsylvania Mental Health Initiative (PAMHI) over five years ago and says she has seen more students dealing with mental health issues over the last couple of years than ever before. She says she will work the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) to help teachers across the country understand the issues their students may be facing and how to help them.

“This really isn’t something that teachers get through teacher education and so why is it fair to expect them to manage mental and behavioral health issues in the classroom when we don’t teach them how to do that," said Crown.

In 2021, Erin Crown and the rest of the PAMHI offered professional development workshops for three school districts in our area; Bald eagle, Huntingdon, and Penns Valley.

Crown says that all students deal with traumas differently and that they use their expertise to explain it from a physiological perspective.

“We brought information from a trauma-informed approach, we talked to them about some reasons that students can have a difficult time regulating their emotions and how some of those various emotions may manifest or may look in a classroom," said Crown.

She says one of their strategies for younger students is creating safe spaces or what she calls ‘calming corners.’ They also set up support programs for students to safely and effectively talk about their mental health issues.

The AAPA says Crown’s work inspired them to work with her and try to do this nationally. Jennifer Orozco is their chief medical officer and says physician assistants aren’t as well-known for mental health and psychiatry but have the background to address it.

“As a PA you’re trained in this holistic model in every single specialty so they can, even if they’re a specialty PA, they can still go and train teachers and schools in their community," said Orozco.

She says some of the issues around youth mental health and trauma are in under-resourced communities, and that this initiative could help with that.

“We really are tapping into our PAs who go back to their community, live in these rural areas, understand them, understand their community and then they can go and help bring these resources," said Orozco.

Crown says that seeing her strategies used nationally is incredibly humbling and that she will be part of the training process with the AAPA. She says she is hopeful for the future of student and teacher experiences in the classroom.

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