For many children, schools are the main or only providers of mental health services. In this visionary and comprehensive book, two nationally known experts describe a new approach to school-based mental health—one that better serves students, maximizes resources, and promotes academic performance. The authors describe how educators can effectively coordinate internal and external resources to support a healthy school environment and help at-risk students overcome barriers to learning. School leaders, psychologists, counselors, and policy makers will find essential guidance, including: • An overview of the history and current state of school mental health programs, discussing major issues confronting the field • Strategies for effective school-based initiatives, including addressing behavior issues, introducing classroom-based activities, and coordinating with community resources • A call to action for higher-quality mental health programming across public schools—including how collaboration, research, and advocacy can make a difference Gain the knowledge you need to develop or improve your school's mental health program to better serve both the academic and mental health needs of your students!
This book provides vivid examples of school mental health innovations from 18 countries, addressing mental health promotion, prevention and interventions. These initiatives and innovations enable readers from different regions and disciplines to apply strategies to help students achieve and maintain mental health, enhance their learning outcomes and access services, worldwide.
"Mental Health Practice in Today's Schools: Issues and Interventions provides a comprehensive guide to the mental health issues of students in our schools and practical school-wide prevention and intervention strategies to address these challenges. This text will likely serve as an essential resource for mental health practitioners and educators working in the schools for years to come." --Michael A. Keim, NCC, Columbus State University, The Professional Counselor In today's schools, the variety and consequences of mental health problems are growing and receiving greater public attention. Moreover, dwindling resources add to the difficulties of providing adequate mental health services. This practice-oriented, evidence-based resource addresses the key mental health issues and challenges facing school-based professionals and helps to facilitate effective and focused mental health consultation, training, and counseling within the school setting. Grounded in a tiered intervention approach to school psychological practices, this text focuses on preventive and proactive services that are integrated at the school-wide and classroom levels, as well as more intensive mental health services for the most vulnerable students. In addition to addressing core issues such as screening for at-risk students, Response to Intervention (RTI) and mental health, culturally sensitive practices, community services and supports, law and ethics, and the role of micro-skills in daily practice, this text also covers critical topics such as bullying and cyber-bullying, physical and sexual abuse, suicide prevention and intervention, school crisis response, threat assessment, and substance abuse. Chapters feature illustrative case examples as well as summaries of key concepts. Facilitating knowledge and awareness of evidence-based mental health practices in schools for practitioners at every level of service, this textbook is also an essential resource for graduate students in school psychology, school guidance and counseling, school social work, and educational leadership. KEY FEATURES: Emphasizes mental health practice from school-wide prevention to student-specific intervention Highlights the essential service connection of RTI to student mental health needs and issues Expands graduate students' and practitioners' knowledge and skill sets regarding high need issues and challenges Describes state-of-the-art, evidence-based mental health programs, services, and approaches Includes case examples within chapters and extensive capstone case studies
"Student success and well-being are the goals of all school staff, whether they are teachers or human services professionals such as counselors, psychologists, or social workers. Building Great Mental Health Professional-Teacher Teams examines how all educators can work together for maximum positive impact on students while making the most of the disciplinary orientation and strengths of each team member. With a focus on overcoming challenging situations and helping students who face adverse childhood experiences, this book provides a sound overview of many issues teams may encounter, from behavior issues to poverty and trauma, and guides readers to a thorough understanding of these problems, their causes, and potential solutions. Providing practical advice for the strategic implementation of action plans to support student success, Building Great Human Services Professional-Teacher Teams informs readers how to navigate inter-group tensions and achieve the shared goal of a school culture that fosters respect, involvement, and growth for all"--
Schools and Health is a readable and well-organized book on comprehensive school health programs (CSHPs) for children in grades K-12. The book explores the needs of today's students and how those needs can be met through CSHP design and development. The committee provides broad recommendations for CSHPs, with suggestions and guidelines for national, state, and local actions. The volume examines how communities can become involved, explores models for CSHPs, and identifies elements of successful programs. Topics include: The history of and precedents for health programs in schools. The state of the art in physical education, health education, health services, mental health and pupil services, and nutrition and food services. Policies, finances, and other elements of CSHP infrastructure. Research and evaluation challenges. Schools and Health will be important to policymakers in health and education, school administrators, school physicians and nurses, health educators, social scientists, child advocates, teachers, and parents.
Provides a comprehensive ten-step sequence for implementing population-based services that improve wellness and academic success for individual students and entire schools, and offers suggestions for engaging parents.
Developing Your School’s Student Support Teams is a practical manual for schools seeking to establish and sustain coordinated teams in support of students’ social, emotional and behavioral health. Every day, students struggle with a range of issues, including traumas, that complicate their learning, engagement, and overall well-being. School psychologists, counselors, social workers and nurses are employed in many school districts, but their schedules often make it difficult to collaborate effectively in developing and implementing comprehensive intervention plans. This book promotes teamwork throughout schools by exploring how interdependent practitioners can come together at the appropriate levels and times to help coordinate school and community resources. This "filtering" process will guide K-12 leaders and service professionals toward systems and decision-making that enable long-term student supports, accurate identification of systemic learning barriers, improved school culture and climate, attention to diverse populations, and more. With these proactive teamwork strategies, school staff will be better prepared to share workload and accountability and to identify and build upon the existing strengths and supports of every student.
A key concern for educators, administrators, professional support services personnel, parents and policy makers are barriers to learning, particularly student mental health. Statistics reveal that up to 20 percent of children and youth have mental health issues and up to 80 percent do not receive proper intervention. Barriers to Learning enables readers to gain valuable insight into the challenges presented in classrooms today. This book presents a unique classification and review of various mental health and learning issues. The authors link current education and child and youth mental health reforms to make the case for improving services to address barriers to learning. This book includes a unique School-based Integrated Student Support Model (SISSM), which, within the context of exceptional school leadership and instruction, provides a framework for timely and evidence-based integrated and collaborative services to reduce, manage, and prevent barriers to learning for all students.
Optimize the delivery of school psychology services with this book: Presents a unique consultation and intervention model Interlinks primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention and intervention applications Addresses specific student and school-level needs Online resources and handouts More about the book This volume written by leading psychology practitioners and academics has been designed to meet the ever-growing challenges faced by educational systems to address the mental health, learning, and socialization needs of students. Using a unique and comprehensive consultation and intervention model, the chapters provide evidence-based guidance that interlinks primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention and intervention applications that allow for systematic consultation, planning, and cost-effective services. The clear and easy to apply model is used to look at specific student needs that are commonly encountered in schools (e.g., depression, ADHD, giftedness) and at issues that require school-level interventions (e.g., diversity, promoting resilience). Practitioners will appreciate the numerous downloadable practical resources and tools for hands-on applications that are available online to purchasers of the book. This book is an invaluable resource for school psychologists and mental health service providers, as well as for academics involved in training pre-service practitioners. The materials for this book can be downloaded from the Hogrefe website after registration.
The challenges of providing mental health services to school children are numerous and diverse, ranging from staffing shortages to insufficient funding to family resistance to administrative indifference. Yet with the U.S. Surgeon General estimating that approximately 20% of young people display signs of psychological problems, the need for such services – particularly for interventions that not only address mental health issues but also reinforce protective factors – is considerable. Evidence-Based School Mental Health Services offers readers an innovative, best-practices approach to providing effective mental health services at school. The author draws on the widely used and effective three-tiered public health model to create a school-based system that addresses the emotional and behavioral needs of students most at risk for experiencing, or showing strong signs and symptoms of, emotional problems or disabilities. This prevention-oriented program adapts cognitive behavioral and other clinical therapies for use in primary through high school settings. In several concise, easy-to-read chapters, the author addresses such important topics as: The rationale for building a three-tier mental health system in schools. The importance of making emotion regulation training available to all students. Designing strategies for adding affect education and emotion regulation training at each tier. Providing empirical support for implementing CBT in school settings. Preparing young children to benefit from school-based CBT. Also included is an Appendix of specific group activities and exercises that can be put to use in the school setting. Evidence-Based School Mental Health Services is a must-have resource for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in school psychology, clinical child psychology, pediatrics, psychiatry, social work, school counseling, education as well as for those who develop or influence public policy. And it is essential reading for any professional who is responsible for and interested in children’s well-being and development.
