Transcript MOpowerpt - Center for School Mental Health

Bringing Health Care to Schools for Student Success
School Mental Health
Capacity Building Partnership*
Missouri Stakeholder Discussion Groups
*A project funded through a Cooperative Agreement with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH)
“Promoting School
Mental Health through
Capacity Building to
State and Local
Education Agencies
(SEA’s and LEA’s)”
Goal 1

Strengthen collaborative national efforts to
improve mental health services in schools
by increasing intersections between mental
health, health, and schools.
Goal 2

Develop, organize and synthesize key
documents and resources related to best
practices for SEA and LEA improvement
and expansion of effective SMH services.
Goal 3

Provide technical assistance, resources and
professional development to aid SEA’s and
LEA’s in implementing effective school
mental health programs.
Statewide Stakeholder Discussion Groups:
PURPOSE

to help identify successes and lessons
learned in “early adopter” states -- at both
the state and local levels -- related to
school mental health policies, programs
and services.
Statewide Stakeholder Discussion Groups:
PROCESS

4 “early adopter” states selected

Selection criteria:
– Shared mental health/education/family agenda
– Strong state level collaboration
– Vision of how to integrate health into school mental
health agenda

Four discussion groups per state
– Three with state and local leaders in education, family
advocacy, health and mental health
– One youth only discussion group
Stakeholder Discussion Groups:
Ohio: December 2006
 Maryland: February 2007
 Missouri: April and May 2007
 Oregon: August 2007

Missouri School Mental Health
Stakeholder Discussion Groups
Process: Adult Discussion Groups

May 10th and 11th, 2007

Three 2-hour discussion groups

30 total participants
–
–
–
–
–
Mental Health: 6
Education: 11
Health: 4
Family members/advocates: 3
Youth development: 6
Results

Responses to Questions
– Themes
– Key Quotations

Challenges

Opportunities
Participant awareness of Missouri’s vision
or agenda for school mental health

No
– Most participants indicated no awareness of a
statewide vision or agenda for school mental
health.
– State level efforts to develop a school mental
health agenda are not filtered down to the
local level.
– Local groups and initiatives have distinct and
different visions, and they are not statewide.

Yes
– Collaborative effort among many agencies and
services associated with children and mental
health to bring a continuum of high quality
mental health services to children and
families.
– Federal legislation has created mandates that
support an agenda for school mental health.

Yes
– There are several statewide initiatives in
Missouri have advanced a vision of school
mental health including:
Healthy Minds, Healthy Learners, Healthy Schools
Project
 Caring Communities
 Transformation Grant
 Safe Schools Grant (Springfield)
 Systems of Care sites
 Council on Adolescent
 School Health (CASH); and Bright Futures
Initiative
 Center for the Advancement of Mental Health
Practices in Schools

What would make it a stronger
agenda?
Increased, sustainable funding
 More service providers in schools
 Improved pre-service training for
educators and mental health providers
 Family engagement

What would make it a stronger
agenda (cont.)?
Legislation to allow community mental
health agencies to provide services in
schools
 School-based health centers
 Increased collaboration/partnership of
agencies/schools/families
 Awareness of research supporting link
between mental health and academic
success

What would make it a stronger
agenda? (cont.)






Better integration of health and mental health
Increased coordination between DESE and DMH
Increased school buy-in
Policy, legislative support and supportive
certification
Mental health resources for youth in juvenile
justice
Increased substance abuse education/prevention
Major Themes



There is not a commonly understood or agreed
upon statewide vision or agenda for school
mental health
There is a lack of coordination between state
departments of education and mental health,
difficulties filtering information from the state
to local levels, and to the local (versus state)
control of school mental health efforts.
Specific grants and initiatives have helped to
advance the vision of school mental health in
Missouri.
Major Themes (continued)

Enhanced awareness of the evidence
linking student mental health with
academic success would support the
advancement of school mental health.

Successful school mental health requires
increased family and youth involvement
in all levels of program planning and
implementation.
Major Themes (continued)

Interagency meetings are essential in ensuring
successful coordination of mental health services
and understanding of roles and responsibilities.

Pre-service training for educators and mental
health professionals, standards for professional
certification and competency, and accountability
mechanisms are critical to building the school
mental health capacities of the education system.
Challenges
Lack of feasible, sustainable funding
models to support comprehensive school
mental health services.
 Lack of quality, interdisciplinary preservice training for mental health providers
and educators. (Limited mechanisms for
quality control in credentialing and service
delivery add to this problem.)

Challenges (continued)
The lack of state standards for school
social workers, and the absence of school
mental health from the Missouri School
Improvement Plan are major obstacles to
successful school mental health in the
state.
 Lack of mechanisms to allow community
mental health agencies to provide services
in schools.

Challenges (continued)

Lack of school buy-in for the importance of
mental health. Educators and school
administrators are over-burdened, and may not
recognize the importance of mental health efforts
in achieving academic success.

Lack of meaningful family and youth
engagement in school mental health efforts due
to limited training opportunities, barriers to
involvement (e.g., transportation, meeting times,
language), and poor outreach.
Challenges (continued)


Efforts to meet the needs of students from
diverse cultural backgrounds have been difficult
related to challenges hiring staff that reflects the
race and ethnicity of the client population, and
challenges implementing effective, up-to-date
training on multiculturalism and diversity.
Requirements to use evidence-based practices in
schools raise problems including exclusion of
effective practices that lack research funding and
support and the difficulties associated with
implementing programs with fidelity in schools.
Opportunities

Missouri’s efforts to develop core mental health
competencies for educators and to embed this
into the education curriculum reflects its
significant progress in developing a teacher
workforce equipped to address mental health
issues in schools.

Missouri’s Senate Bill 1003 offers legislative
support for providing coordinated mental health
services to youth in a public health framework.
Opportunities (continued)

Missouri’s Bright Futures Project serves as a
model of interdisciplinary training approach that
bridges education, health and mental health
utilizing a statewide dissemination mechanism
via regional professional development training.

With enhanced understanding about the benefits
of school-based health centers in improving both
student health and mental health, Missouri may
consider enhancing support and resources for the
development of school-based health centers in
the state.
Opportunities (continued)

Despite not being funded as a Coordinated
School Health Program (CSHP) state,
Missouri has embraced the CSHP model in
its school assessments and service
delivery, reflecting a connection between
health and mental health; Being funded as
a CSHP state would likely add emphasis to
the model and provide further momentum.
Opportunities (continued)

Missouri’s Center for the Advancement of
Mental Health Practices in Schools (CAMHPS)
serves as a central point in the state for accessing
resources and advancing a statewide vision for
school mental health.

Missouri has several good examples of formal
evaluations used to assess the effectiveness of
school mental health efforts in the state including
PBIS, Head Start, Bright Futures, Big Brothers
Big Sisters, and Systems of Care.
Missouri Youth
Discussion Groups
Youth Discussion Groups
PURPOSE:
 to identify, from a youth perspective, the
most effective strategies for providing
mental health services in schools and for
engaging youth in the development of
school mental health policies and
programs.
Youth Discussion Group: Method
March 15, 2007 and April 15, 2007
 Two 1.5-hour discussion groups
 Moberly High School

– Five participants, ages 14-17
– two African-American, three Caucasian
– Recruited though assistant principal

University Behavioral Health
– Four participants, ages 14-17
– Students with emotional disabilities
Youth Discussion Groups:
Process
SAMPLE QUESTIONS:
1.
2.
3.
How can adults at your school make all
students feel supported both in school as well
as other areas of their life?
What can schools do to better understand the
different cultures or backgrounds a student
comes from?
How well do you think that adults in your
school respond to students with mental health
problems?
Youth Discussion Groups:
Major Themes

Students believe that confidentiality is
important.

Extracurricular activities provide positive
outlets for students.
Teachers and other school personnel have a
negative attitude toward mental health issues
and students that have mental health problems.
Opportunities to discuss mental health as a
whole school need to be provided


Youth Discussion Groups:
Findings (cont.)



Barriers to Accessing Counseling
Services include: being afraid, counselors
not having the time, teachers not letting
students leave class
Trust Issues – Students think that trust is
an important issue when relating to
school personnel and reciprocal trust is
needed.
Special Attention – School personnel
should give special attention to students
with health/mental health issues.
Bringing Health Care to Schools for Student Success
Laura Hurwitz
Director, School Mental Health Programs
[email protected]
202-638-5872, x205
1-888-286-8727 - toll free