International experience in mental health provision in secondary schools

Abstract

The protection of children's mental health is an important task, since missed opportunities for psychiatric care during this period are very difficult to make up for in the future. On the basis of research by domestic and foreign authors in recent years, we analyzed the foreign experience that has developed to date in providing psychological and psychiatric care to children in school settings from the position of their applicability in domestic practice. The current state of knowledge on models of mental health care for children in the school setting is reviewed, and possibilities for their use in mental health promotion are identified. Mental health services embedded in the educational system, both abroad and in Russia, synergistically promote mental health and education. The school as an organized collective provides a broad organizational opportunity to provide diagnostic and treatment interventions, as well as to equalize the availability of mental health care. However, it is currently recognized that the educational system and the mental health care delivery system are structurally, administratively and legislatively disconnected.