Calvert County health officer presents YRBS findings; county expands school-based behavioral services

Calvert County Health Officer Dr. Taneza Mora told the Student Safety & Well‑Being Advisory Committee on July 1 that the county’s most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS) data show persistent levels of vaping, alcohol and cannabis use and rising indicators of depression among students.

Dr. Mora, who presented 2022–23 survey results to the committee, said roughly one in five high‑school students reported current electronic vapor product use in 2023 and that middle‑school rates were substantially lower. "School health really is public health," she said, arguing the health department wants to use the data to target prevention and interventions.

Why it matters: committee members pressed presenters on mental‑health and suicide indicators and on how the health department and schools can use multiple data sources to target resources. Denise Dickerson, interim director of behavioral health, described the county’s growing school‑based behavioral program, including a pilot to provide medication management in three schools and efforts to track outcomes with measurement‑based care.

Key findings presented

- Electronic vapor products: Dr. Mora summarized slides showing about 18–19 percent of high‑school students reported current use of electronic vapor products in 2023; middle‑school students were about 6.8 percent. She cautioned some slide values varied by subgroup and by small sample sizes.

- Substance use: Current alcohol use in the last 30 days was reported by about 26 percent of high‑school students and about 7.6 percent of middle‑school students. Current marijuana use in high school was reported at about 15.6 percent (3.1 percent in middle school).

- Prescription pain‑medication misuse: High‑school self‑report of taking prescription pain medication without a doctor’s directions was 11.2 percent; middle‑school self‑report was about 9 percent. Dr. Mora noted those rates exceed national figures cited in her presentation.

- Mental health and suicide indicators: The presentation reported depressive symptoms (feeling sad or hopeless nearly every day for two weeks) in roughly one‑third of high‑school students (about 33 percent) and similar rates in middle school. Electronic bullying was reported by 14.4 percent of high‑school students and about 34 percent of middle‑school students. The slides included questions about seriously considering suicide in the prior 12 months, but committee discussion focused on overall rates rather than detailed causal breakdowns.

- Safety, nutrition and immunizations: Other slides showed 5.5 percent of high‑school students reported driving after drinking in the prior 30 days and that 12.1 percent of high‑school students and 20.9 percent of middle‑school students had ridden with a driver who had been drinking. Obesity/overweight among high‑school students was reported at 26.3 percent; about 7.5 percent of students experienced food insecurity (source shown as Feeding America). Kindergarten immunization coverage reported from Maryland Department of Health data was near 100 percent for required vaccines in 2023–24, with exemptions remaining under 2 percent.

Presenters’ program descriptions and next steps

Dr. Mora described how Calvert County Health Department programs support schools: hearing and vision screenings with follow‑up referral, annual back‑to‑school vaccination clinics (the department reported administering nearly 1,000 vaccine doses per school year to support the schools), outbreak response and a lead‑poisoning prevention program that enrolls and follows children with elevated blood lead levels.

Denise Dickerson said behavioral‑health services are available both in the community and in schools; she reported the county’s behavioral health team has seen roughly 550 students this school year and that about 300 students have been served in a recent six‑month window with roughly 150 currently enrolled as of an April 1 pull of the data. Dickerson described services including individual and group therapy, behavioral specialists attached to head‑start/Judy Center locations, therapists assigned to most schools, and a new pilot that places nurse practitioners to provide medication management in three schools to reduce missed instructional time for brief medication follow‑ups.

Dickerson also said the county is pursuing targeted work on depression and suicide prevention. "We have invested in what we call measurement‑based care, which is a platform that allows us to actually track the objective data so our clients will be able to respond to validated screening tools," she said, describing plans to monitor symptom changes and adjust care.

Committee questions and department responses

Committee members asked about the data lag for state‑level surveys; Dr. Mora said the county was using 2022–23 data because 2024 results were still being analyzed and likely would not be released until late 2025 or 2026. Members asked whether the county had access to the school system’s Panorama data; presenters encouraged cross‑agency data sharing to identify schools or grades needing support.

On consent and confidentiality, Dickerson summarized current practice: federal rules on substance‑use treatment protect confidentiality and do not impose a uniform age‑of‑consent threshold for those services, and Maryland law allows minors to consent to certain mental‑health services from about age 12 where clinicians judge the minor capable of informed consent. She emphasized staff generally encourage parental involvement when feasible.

Planned initiatives and funding

Presenters noted the county has been a recipient of state ‘‘blueprint’’ funding and consortium grants to support school mental‑health work and said the health department has applied for additional funding. Dickerson and Dr. Mora said the department plans a combined upstream prevention and therapeutic approach next school year that would emphasize early identification, resiliency training, measurement‑based care and continued expansion of school‑based services.

Ending

Committee members thanked the presenters and discussed broader, system‑level possibilities such as community prevention models and partnership with youth organizations. The advisory committee took no legislative action at the meeting beyond routine procedural motions to approve the agenda and adjourn; presenters left the committee with a plan to pursue cross‑agency data sharing and to continue implementing the measurement‑based care and medication‑management pilot as described.

Quotes in this article are taken from the committee meeting presentation by Dr. Taneza Mora and remarks by Denise Dickerson.