CFS Staff Draft Blueprint for School-based Mental Health Service Systems
A new resource to determine how best to implement school-based mental health services is now available for policy and decision-makers working to improve services for the growing number of children and adolescents succumbing to the adverse effects of emotional disturbance.
The new monograph from the Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health, School-Based Mental Health: An Empirical Guide for Decision-Makers, provides practical information and advice for those engaged in developing and implementing effective evidence-based services in the school setting. Authored by Krista Kutash, PhD, Albert J. Duchnowski, PhD, and Nancy Lynn, MSP.H. as part of the Center's School-Based Mental Health Services Study, the guide draws on over a decade of investigation on delivery of mental health services and supports in school settings, and factors that impact effectiveness in meeting the emotional and developmental needs of the nation’s children and youth.
According to the authors, communities seeking to increase utilization of school-based mental health services in their schools face a baffling array of program choices. Up until now, no comprehensive blueprint was available that integrates advocacy, empirical support, and the community capacity for implementation.
To assist planners, the authors (1) describe the principal models and approaches iidentified in the literature from mental health and education, (2) critique the empirical support for the approaches described, and (3) suggests how science, policy, and practice can be integrated to achieve effective school-based mental health service systems through the adoption of the public health model.
The monograph’s chapters discuss:
- The search for common definitions for prevention and intervention in school-based mental health, and how universal, selective, and indicated approaches are now conceptualized;
- Today’s influential models for school-based mental health service delivery;
- Programs and approaches endorsed in the literature and in primary directories of evidence-based mental health services;
- Major federal policies that have supported--and in some cases mandated--school-based mental health, with the implications;
- The state of the science on organizational structures and financing mechanisms for school-based mental health programs;
- Reflections on the current status of school-based mental health, future research needs, and how the public health model can be employed to support extensive implementation of effective services.
This monograph is a product of the School-Based Mental Health Services Study of the Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health at the University of South Florida. The Center is jointly funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S Department of Education and the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration under grant number H133B040024.