School Mental Health Services Study

Chftracteristics and Funding of School Mental Health Services Study... 

Leaf, P. J, Alegria, M Cohen, R, Goodman, S. H., Horowitz, S. M., Houen, C. W., Narrow, W. E., Vaden-Kieman, M., Regeier, D. A. (1996). Mental health service use in the community and schools Results from the 4 community MECA study. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 889-897. 

SMHOG was initially inspired by the need to assist the esmh initiative in its effort to systematically and purposefully collect and analyze student-level data to document the impact of esmh services. However, it was quickly learned via discussion with school system officials and mental health providers that the models to which clinicians adhered and the nature of clinical activities were not well described or understood. Such unexamined variation would pose a barrier to interpretation of any outcome data that were collected (see Nabors, Weist, Reynolds, 2000). It was also discovered that there were a wide variety of proposed benefits of the esmh framework—some supported by the existing national literature base (Armbruster Lichtman, 1999 Weist et al., 2000), some not— which would also make design of appropriate outcome studies difficult. Thus, smhog s first project was to learn more about the nature of school mental health in Baltimore via a provider survey. This served to both gather process information and lay the foundation for future outcome research. 

Hoagwood, K., Erwin, H. D. (1997). Effectiveness of school-based mental health services for children A 10-year research review. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 6,435-451. 

Evidence from our initial study of a model for school-based mental health services provided support for a broadly defined parental involvement program (Atkins, Adil, Jackson, Talbott, et al., 2001). Extensive efforts to recruit and engage families in services resulted in initial recruitment rates above 90%, and of those 60 families, 86% remained involved in services at 9-month follow-up (Atkins et al., 2001). Because only about half of the families attended one or more parent groups, and fewer than a third attended sessions regularly, all families received home-based services in addition to consultation with the child s teacher and other... 

The professional literature regarding school reform, social reform, and mental health reform has collectively identified schools as having the potential to provide effective mental health services. As a result, a growing body of research is being conducted on esmh programs. However, few studies to date have identified components, features, and active ingredients of effective school-based mental health programs for children with sed. 

Greenberg, M. T., Domitrovich, C., Graczyk, P. A., Zins, J. E. (in press). The study of implementation in school-based prevention research Implications for theory, research, and practice. Report submitted to The Center for Mental Health Services. Rockville, MD Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

Brener, N. D., Martindale, J., Weist, M. D. (2001). Mental health and social services Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000. Journal of School Health, 71, 305-312. 

In addition to established need, effectiveness of approach, and widely shared goals, successful advocacy for mental health programs in schools requires collaboration between the mental health and the education fields. Mental health advocates must expand their efforts beyond traditional mental health coalitions to include a broad-based constituency in order to secure buy-in outside of the mental health field. Unfortunately, too many advocacy efforts have been driven by the mental health community in an effort to force services on reluctant school systems. Such efforts are almost certain to fail since policymakers will automatically look to education advocates to determine priorities for school funding and new programs. The best advocacy efforts, as the following case studies demonstrate, are the product of communitywide coalitions and careful collaboration between multiple constituencies. 

Evaluation activities of the ss-hs project in Baltimore have also helped schools and, in particular, student support teams (sst) identify their students needs. In order to help facilitate decision-making surrounding services for children, the bcpss recently required SSTS to exist within each school. The bcpss hopes that the ssts will coordinate all referrals for special services (except special education services, which existing child study teams handle) within a school. The sst consists of administrators, mental health professionals, teachers, and other school staff. School... 

---