Can We Talk? Conversations About Mental Health and Behaviors in Schools (original) (raw)
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Mental health in schools : engaging learners, preventing problems, and improving schools
2010
Growing numbers of children are suffering needlessly because their emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs are not being met by the very institutions and systems that were created to take care of them.-U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001) found in Adelman and Taylor (2010) In public schools across the United States school administrators, teachers, psychologists, counselors and other support staff face the challenge of ensuring their students receive needed mental health services despite budget cuts and other significant logistical constraints. For example, with the elimination of AB3632 funding in 2010, Local Educational Agencies across California are feeling immense pressure to deliver mental health services to students who previously received assistance from the Department of Mental Health. A timely addition to the educational literature, authors Adelman and Taylor comprehensively address this juxtaposition of need and constraint in their most recent book, Mental Health in Schools: Engaging Learners, Preventing Problems, and Improving Schools. Within the text, readers are provided with valuable information regarding the restructure, development, and enhancement of school-based mental health programs. The authors open with a review of the history and current state of mental health in schools and move toward making suggestions for how to better address the mental health needs of students. They advocate persuasively for effective collaboration among stakeholders when providing mental health services in the public school systems. School psychologists, in particular, may find the guidelines provided by the authors useful in paving the way for school-based mental health service delivery models because they will undoubtedly be responsible for creating comprehensive programs to address student needs. PaSt School based mental health service providers have historically been tasked with large number of referrals for the provision of mental health services and it is estimated that the ratio of school psychologists to students will continue to rise from 1 to 2,500 to even larger numbers (Ringeisen, Henderson, & Hoagwood, 2003). Adelman and Taylor begin their analysis of mental health services with an historical review. The authors evaluate the proliferation of legislation and public policy, which has sparked various movements in the delivery of school-based mental health services. They argue that these undertakings, including the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) and the 2007 Progress Report on the President's New Freedom Initiative, have created conflicting agendas. These initiatives call for schools to be involved in the provision of mental health services while at the same time demanding that they
Mental Health in Schools: Moving in New Directions
Contemporary School Psychology, 2012
It has long been acknowledged that a variety of psychosocial and health problems affect learning and performance in profound ways. And school policy makers have a lengthy history of trying to assist teachers in dealing with problems that interfere with schooling. Prominent examples are seen in the range of psychological, counseling, and social service programs schools provide (Adelman & Taylor 2010). Adding to the work done by student support personnel is whatever the community can offer to collocate and/or link to schools. While many societal considerations are involved, for the most part the rationale for strengthening mental health in schools has stressed one or both of the following points: • schools provide good access to students (and their families) who require mental health services; • schools need to address psychosocial and mental and physical health concerns to enable effective school performance and student well being. Point one typically reflects the perspective and agenda of mental health advocates and agencies whose mission is to improve mental health services. The second point reflects the perspective and agenda of student support professionals and some leaders for school improvement and also provides a supportive rationale for those wanting schools to play a greater role related to addressing young people's health concerns (Adelman & Taylor, 2006a, b). Implied in both agenda is the hope of enhancing the nature and scope of mental health interventions to fill gaps, enhance effectiveness, address problems early, reduce stigma, and fully imbue clinical and service efforts with public health, general education, and equity orientations. This issue of Contemporary School Psychology with its emphasis on promising approaches to wellness, social skills, and life competencies mainly reflects the second agenda. The problem with both rationales is that, when proposals emphasize another specific approach, another initiative, another team, and so forth, the fragmentation of efforts to focus on the "total child" at a school and throughout a district tends to increase. And, when fragmentation is exacerbated, efforts to embed mental health and psychosocial concerns are further marginalized in school improvement policy and practice. How Mental Health And psychosocial Concerns Are Marginalized in Current School improvement policly And practice Prevailing policy and plans for turning around, transforming, and continuously improving schools are primarily shaped by a two-component framework which marginalizes efforts related to providing additional supports and attention where needed (Adelman & Taylor, 18). This is graphically presented in Exhibit 1. As illustrated, the main thrust is on improving (1) instruction and (2) how schools manage resources, with the many student and learning support programs and services operated as supplementary add-ons.
Toward the Integration of Education and Mental Health in Schools
Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 2010
Education and mental health integration will be advanced when the goal of mental health includes effective schooling and the goal of effective schools includes the healthy functioning of students. To build a solid foundation for this reciprocal agenda, especially within the zeitgeist of recent educational reforms, a change in the fundamental framework within which school mental health is conceptualized is needed. This change involves acknowledging a new set of priorities, which include: the use of naturalistic resources within schools to implement and sustain effective supports for students' learning and emotional/behavioral health; inclusion of integrated models to enhance learning and promote health; attention to improving outcomes for all students, including those with serious emotional/ behavioral needs; and strengthening the active involvement of parents. A strong research agenda to support these new priorities is essential.
Promoting Mental Health in Schools in the Midst of School Reform
Journal of School Health, 2000
Eflorts to promote mental health in schools have encountered a variety of systemic problems. Of particular concern is that planning and implementing programs and services often occurs in an unsystematic and ad hoc fashion resulting in fragmented andpiecemeal activities and an inefficient use of limited resources. Even more fundamental is the degree to which schools marginalize all efforts to address barriers to student learning. With a view to enhancing understanding and resolution of these problems, this paper explores the policy deficiencies that perpetuate the status quo and presents a framework for moving forward.
Issues in Clinical Child Psychology, 2013
Over the last 10–15 years, there has been significant momentum in the development and implementation of school mental health (SMH) programs, both nationally and internationally (e.g., Kumar et al., 2009; Weist, Lindsey, Moore, & Slade, 2006; Wells et al., 2011). The impetus has been based largely on the prevalence of mental health ailments among children and adolescents coupled with the opportunity to treat them in a context where they spend the majority of the day. When done well, SMH programs are embedded within existing educational systems to provide a continuum of care for students with a range of mental health conditions, educational needs, and disabilities; and SMH professionals must be proficient in working within these systems (Kutash & Duchnowski, 2011; Mellin & Weist, 2011). For instance, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2006) governs how school systems provide special education and related services to youth with various disabilities, many of which have a mental health component. Another educational paradigm relevant to SMH is Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS; Simonsen, Sugai, & Fairbanks, 2007). PBIS is a framework to promote and select effective instructional and behavioral practices for all students, from broad-based prevention to individualized services. These systems provide examples of the interdisciplinary context within which SMH providers must integrate their practices.
School-based mental health: Toward a comprehensive approach
The Journal of Mental Health Administration, 1993
In response to psychosocial problems that affect schooling, school-based mental health programs have proliferated. Available evidence, however, suggests such programs often are planned and implemented in a narrow and piecemeal fashion. As a result, there is little coordination for integration and continuity with each other or with other school and community-based programs. In addressing the problem, this paper briefly (a) summarizes conclusions from a descriptive survey of one school district's programmatic efforts, (b) discusses the role of school mental health specialists related to such programs, and (c) outlines processes for moving toward a comprehensive school-based approach in addressing mental health concerns. It has long been accepted that when children have trouble learning and performing at school, a variety of social and emotional factors may be involved and must be addressed if schools are to function satisfactorily. 1-5 For example, social and emotional factors are cited in relation to early school adjustment difficulties, underachievement, truancy, dropouts, drug abuse, gang violence, teen pregnancy, and various special education categories. In response to psychosocial problems that affect schooling, school-based and school-linked programs have been developed for purposes of early intervention, treatment, crisis intervention, and prevention. 6-9 Such programs aim at improving attendance, reducing dropouts and a wide range of undesired behavior, helping schools and students through emergency situations, enhancing self-esteem and intrinsic motivation, teaching prosocial skills, and so forth. When appropriately developed and implemented, the programs are seen as benefiting not only a school district (e.g., better student functioning, increased attendance, less teacher frustration) but society at large (e.g., reducing costs related to welfare, unemployment, and adult mental health services). Belief in the societal benefits of school-based approaches has led the state of New Jersey to move toward relocating all its adolescent services in the public schools, As currently implemented, the state's School-Based Youth Services Program is an attempt to bring comprehensive (including mental health) services for teenagers together "in the one place where the majority of young people can be reached" (p. 828). 1~ Similarly, schools and society at large expect to benefit from the nationwide proliferation of school-based health clinics and centers with their focus on both medical and mental health concerns.
Embedding Mental Health into School Improvement Policy and Practice
2020
Based on analyses of school improvement policy and practice, it is clear that efforts to address mental health concerns in schools are marginalized in school improvement policy. To end the marginalization, prevailing school policy and practices for addressing learning, behavior, and emotional problems require reframing. This paper reports on facets of our Center’s R&D work that (a) clarifies key matters related advancing mental health in schools, (b) delineates the need to expand school improvement policy and practice from a two to a three component framework, and (c) embeds mental health interventions into the third component by reframing how schools address barriers to learning and teaching and reengage disconnected students.