School-based Mental Health Initiatives Research Articles

Mapping education leadership of mental health promotion in one school district in British Columbia: A strength-based case study

Mental illness is a public health emergency threatening youth's social, physical, and economic vitality (Fahey & Koster, 2019). School-based mental health initiatives have been identified as a sustainable approach to this issue (World Health Organization, 2019). This study employed a qualitative case-based methodology to understand how educational leaders effectively implement mental health policies and programming. Three significant findings were identified: 1) the leadership of mental health initiatives formed a closely interconnected network of relationships with distributed responsibility across clearly identified roles and responsibilities within the school system and externally with the province and community-based supports; 2) Making network attributes and patterns of communication visible provided district and school-based leaders with discernable areas for intervention and growth serving as an impetus for system improvement; 3). Systems that effectively implement mental health policies and programming intentionally utilize multi-level, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary implementation teams by co-developing innovative ways to remove barriers to service.

School-Based Mental Health Initiative: Potentials and Challenges for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

School-based mental health support services allow children and adolescents easy access to services without requirement of traveling to clinics and hospitals. We describe a School Mental Health Support Scheme (SMHSS) piloted in Hong Kong and discuss the challenges and learnings from the experience. This conceptual paper argues that accessibility is not the only advantage of such services. Teachers are significant others in child development, alongside with families. They play a central role in impacting the children's/adolescents' needs for competence and adult attachment, while schools provide an expanded social network of peers for one's social relationship. The fulfillment of these needs has powerful implications in the mental health of the children/adolescents. Teachers can help students to develop a sense of competence with self-worth and self-identity via providing guidance and feedback, whether they be on one's strengths or weaknesses, with acceptance, tolerance and unconditional positive regard. Particularly, the latter define a form of teacher-student relationship or adult attachment that offers the children/adolescents emotional security and nourishment, protecting them from failings and adversities. Teachers can also supervise and guide their students' social development with peers at schools. A recent meta-analysis has found preliminary evidence that those school-based mental health services integrated into the teachers' routine teaching activities are more effective. Teachers, who are overworked and stressed by the schools' overemphasis on academics and grades, have yet to fully grasp their unique roles in supporting students with mental health needs. This paper ends by advocating a paradigm shift in which both the healthcare professionals and educators should forge a mutually beneficial collaboration in jointly enhancing the mental health of children/adolescents at schools.

Review: Delivering mental health support within schools and colleges - a thematic synthesis of barriers and facilitators to implementation of indicated psychological interventions for adolescents.

Increasing the role of schools and colleges in the provision of mental health services for young people has the potential to improve early intervention and access to treatment. We aimed to understand what factors influence the successful implementation of indicated psychological interventions within schools and colleges to help guide increased provision of mental health support within education settings. Systematic search for studies that have reported barriers or facilitators to the implementation of indicated interventions for adolescent emotional disorders delivered within schools and further education/sixth form colleges (CRD42018102830). Databases searched were EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, British Nursing Index, ASSIA, ERIC and British Education Index. A thematic synthesis of factors reported to impact implementation was conducted. Two thousand five hundred and sixty-nine records and 177 full texts were screened. Fifty studies were identified for inclusion, all of which were of school-based interventions. Eleven analytic themes were developed encompassing intervention characteristics, organisational capacity, training and technical assistance, provider characteristics and community-level factors. Findings indicate the need to select appropriate interventions, consider logistical challenges of the school context and provide training and supervision to enable staff to deliver interventions with fidelity. However, structural and environmental support is required for these facilitators to have the greatest impact on successful implementation. Implementing indicated school-based mental health interventions is challenging. Those involved in planning school-based mental health initiatives must be alert to the impact of factors on multiple interacting levels. There is a lack of research on implementing mental health support within further education and sixth form colleges. Increased utilisation of schools and colleges as a setting for early intervention has been proposed as a means of improving access to mental health treatment, but successful implementation of mental health interventions within educational settings is challenging. Based on a synthesis of current evidence, we recommend that young people and education professionals should be involved in the selection of school-based interventions to ensure they are acceptable and practical to deliver within the logistical constraints of the school environment. Those delivering interventions within schools, as well as staff involved in identifying young people who might benefit from these interventions, must receive high-quality ongoing training and support. Senior school leaders play an important role in championing mental health interventions and developing a school culture that prioritises mental well-being. Health and education policy should be designed to promote a cross-sector focus on the emotional health of young people. There is a lack of evidence on the implementation of indicated psychological interventions within sixth form and further education colleges.

Teachers as therapeutic agents: perceptions of a school-based mental health initiative

Teacher–child relationship building (TCRB) is a play-based professional development programme adapted from kinder training and filial therapy. Intended for early education teachers and students, TCRB is designed to strengthen the teacher–child relationship, improve student behaviour, enhance academic involvement and develop teachers' classroom management skills. In the current study, we utilised a phenomenological approach to examine teachers' perceptions of the initial implementation of TCRB through identifying individual and collective perspectives in the summation of themes. Findings indicated that the teachers perceived the TCRB model to be informative, well organised, appropriately structured and effective in enhancing teacher–child relationships, improving classroom management skills and reducing behavioural problems among child participants. Limitations of the study, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Preventing Depression in Young People. What Does the Evidence Tell us and How Can we Use it to Inform School-Based Mental Health Initiatives?

The World Health Organization predicts that depression will be the second leading cause of disease and disability by 2020. Apart from having an impact on the quality of a young person's life, depre...

Enhancig the Effectivencess and Sustainability of School-Based Mental Health Programs: Maximizing Program Participation, Knowledge Uptake and Ongoing Evaluation using Internet-Based Resources

School-based mental health initiatives designed to address mental health difficulties in young people face a number of challenges that can limit their effectiveness and sustainability. These include challenges to participation, challenges to knowledge uptake and challenges to timely and ongoing evaluation. In this paper, we review how each of these challenges affects the effectiveness of school-based mental health programs and how they can be addressed, in part, through interactive, internet-based resources and tools, while maximizing the sustainability of those programs. Never before has a single delivery system such as the internet had the capacity to reach such a large number of young people simultaneously.