Building Mental Resiliency to Beat the Back-to-School Blues

Summer can be a tough time for parents—dealing with the lack of routine, sleep disruptions, family vacations and even just the increase in grocery bills with hungry kids hanging around the pantry all day. But for kids, summer is not only a welcome break from strict routines—it can also be much a needed respite from issues like performance-based anxiety, sensory overload and other strains on mental health.

“There’s less stress, said my 10-year-old daughter when I asked her why she seems so much happier during summer break. “At school it’s so loud and there’s so much to do and there’s just so much to juggle.”

She isn’t alone. The slower pace of summer gives kids a chance to process at their own pace, shares Sarah Leet, PA-C, a provider at Mosaic Community Health’s School-Based Health Center in Sisters. “Environment plays an important role in mental wellness,” said Leet, “And for youth who have less stressors during summer, it can be a prime opportunity to practice resiliency.”

One of the ways parents can help their children to build resiliency is to use the slower pace of school breaks to help students notice their own abilities, explained Leet. Taking the time to stop and acknowledge when they’ve coped well with a problem can help build self-confidence to deal with issues that arise during the school year.

“Even though school might seem like a bigger hill,” said Leet, “knowing that they coped with one thing well can help them realize they can cope with another. When kids aren’t as stressed, worried, depressed or anxious, they are better able to see how well they’re able to manage things.”

Preparing Mentally for Going Back to School

To help get ahead of the upcoming shift back to higher stakes and stimulation, my daughter has been seeing a therapist over the summer. In these sessions, they can talk about common scenarios that have arisen in the past and put action plans in place so that she feels more prepared. Other options for parents and kids, said Leet, include scheduling one-off consultations with a behavioral health specialist as well as checking-in on mental health during back-to-school annual wellness checks. Seasonal medication just for the school year can also help, if needed, she said—but always works best in tandem with therapy.

Whether mental health worsens over summer or while school is in session, about one in six school-aged youth experience a mental health disorder each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health. This number has been growing—which is why more healthcare models are integrating behavioral health support right there in the primary care provider’s office. At Mosaic, the behavioral health team works side-by-side with the medical team at each of their health centers. This gives them the opportunity to connect with patients as soon as a need is identified by their primary care provider, without having to refer them out to another place, time and appointment.

Mosaic’s behavioral health team can offer short-term counseling or facilitate connecting with a longer-term therapist through community partners, like they did with my daughter. The “warm hand-off,” as they call it, means that students and families know a whole team is coordinating their care and working together to make sure no one falls through the cracks.

It Takes a Village: Working Together for Whole-Child Health

This integrated behavioral health model has been essential for my family—and not just in relation to back-to-school prep, but in caring for my children’s overall health too. At my daughter’s last wellness visit, a behavioral health specialist was able to come into the exam room right then and there to help her with her severe and lifelong anxiety about receiving vaccinations. The specialist worked with her on breathing techniques and talked her through the procedure while holding her hand. As a parent, it felt like a weight off my shoulders to have someone else there to help carry the load of caring for an anxious child.

After all, explains Lindsey Overstreet, LCSW, director of Pediatric Behavioral Health at Mosaic, an estimated 75 percent of primary care visits are “behavioral”—related to behaviors impacting health, such as diet, exercise, tobacco use, taking medications consistently—and, of course, stress levels. The purpose of integrating behavioral health specialists is to help offset the burden on primary care providers who are trained to treat medical, rather than behavioral, health issues. Additionally, it provides support for behavioral issues that don’t warrant a full-blown diagnosis and therefore might go untreated—like back-to-school anxiety.

“So that’s where our team fits in perfectly,” said Overstreet. “In that in-between space where it’s not a full mental health diagnosis, but there’s so much work we can do that’s preventative in nature and can help change the trajectory for kids.”

Overstreet says she used to work in adult behavioral health but moved to pediatrics because she felt there was more of a chance to focus on prevention. “It’s a non-stigmatizing way we can help before it reaches a major problem.”

Making Mental Health Support Accessible and Familiar

While my daughter experiences better mental health during school breaks, it’s vital to note that this is not true for all. Many school-aged children—especially those at-risk for food or housing insecurity, neglect, abuse or lack of socialization—experience worsening and sometimes critical mental health issues when school is out and there are fewer support systems in place.

That’s one of the reasons why mental health consultation is a standard part of the screening during a child’s annual wellness visit at Mosaic, and available at any time should issues arise during an appointment. The aim is to increase access to mental health support at as many connection points as possible, so that nothing is missed.

Another point of access is School-Based Health Centers which are conveniently located within or near school grounds, allowing older students to drop in on their way to or from school or during lunch breaks. For parents, they reduce the need for travel and multiple appointments and provide care at a familiar location.

Mosaic has seven school-based health centers in Central Oregon—including Bend, Redmond, Prineville, Madras and Sisters—which are open year-round, including during school breaks, to provide continuous care and support. Children and youth do not need to be students at the school or be an established Mosaic patient to see a SBHC provider, and anyone ages 0 to 18 can be seen. Behavioral health specialists are on site, as well as primary care providers and others. The goal is to create a sense of support for parents and kids and to let them know: you’re not alone.

Better Mental Health for All: Parents Too!

When the primary care provider and the behavioral health specialist work elbow-to-elbow like they do at Mosaic, they’re often able to make connections parents might not necessarily make. For issues like sudden bed wetting or picky eating, the behavioral health specialist can step in and address the full bio-pyscho-social system of the family and child and help identify root causes. “Because, frankly, as a parent it’s difficult to piece things together when you’re so close to it,” said Overstreet. “We look at it from all directions and see what big or small changes we can help the family make.”

And this doesn’t just mean better health outcomes for kids—but parents too. Research shows that integrating behavioral health into pediatric visits results in healthier children and improves parental mental health. Parents of children receiving integrated behavioral support report lower stress levels and improved coping mechanisms, reducing the overall burden of caring for a child’s complex physical and mental health needs.

Like many, I find parenting to be a lonely experience sometimes. Juggling the diversity of my children’s needs, trying to remember everything, knowing that the pressure and the weight is all on me to keep the kids healthy and happy—it’s overwhelming. It’s supposed to “take a village,” but the nature of modern culture means that our villages are often small or non-existent. Having the support of a whole team at Mosaic—other adults who have the time, expertise, patience and care to be in it with me—feels very much like being part of a village.

I’m proud that I get to work for an organization that makes that kind of difference every day. In healthcare, it’s not always the dramatic rescues or life-saving interventions you see on TV and in the news that make the biggest impact. It’s often the everyday moments of people working together in community—caring, listening, reassuring and showing up for one another—that truly create space for healing, health and happiness. It’s having someone trusted there to hold your daughter’s hand when she’s afraid and yours are full.

This article appears in BendNest Fall 2025.