Is it Influenced by Research?: A Policy Analysis of a Mental Health Strategy

Abstract

To provide effective mental health support for students, school policies should be based on current research. This poses a great concern because historically, Canadian mental health policies do not rely on research (Nelson, 2012). This study investigates the mental health strategy (a type of policy) of a large public school board in Canada, to determine if the strategy aligns with current research on school mental health. To analyze the strategy, I collected current research about school mental health practices and tabulated the best practices into a checklist. I utilized the checklist to assess the mental health strategy. Overall, the strategy included 12 out of the 17 practices on the checklist, suggesting that the school board did a satisfactory job of incorporating research-based mental health practices. However, there is still room for improvement; input from students and staff can add value to the evaluation of the strategy.