How might we adapt a national school mental health curricula to create a statewide model and professional development approach unique to California?
• Teachers• School District and State Administrators• School Counselors and Psychologists• Licensed Mental Health Clinicians• Superintendents and District Leadership• School Board Members•Project Cal Well leadership•Community-Based Organizations (training agencies, etc.)•PBIS leadership teams, School Climate Transformation teams•And open to all interested!Note: We are recommending, though not requiring, bringing 2-3 team members per organization.
The National Coordinating Office of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) and the University of Maryland’s Center for School Mental Health recently released the SAMHSA-funded National School Mental Health Curriculum (July 2019). The curriculum is an exciting new national resource for developing and overseeing school mental health systems at the school district and building levels. The curriculum focuses on the following core components of comprehensive school mental health:
Educators and Student Instructional Support Personnel
Collaboration and Teaming
Multi-Tiered System of Supports
Evidence-Informed Services and Supports
Cultural Responsiveness and Equity
Data-Driven Decision Making
The modules align with the national performance domains and indicators established as part of the National Quality Initiative on School Health. The curriculum contains:
A trainer manual and a participant manual
8 slide decks – each module is designed for delivery in one-hour, in-person sessions
In partnership with Wellness Together School Mental Health, the California Department of Education, and Project Cal-Well, join us to adapt and contextualize each module’s resources and tools to reflect our California landscape; complement our state systems’ and districts’ strengths; and align with existing school mental health initiatives (PBIS, Safe Schools, ACEs, etc.). Join the California School Mental Health Collaborative workshop session (12:30-3:30) to learn more about the curriculum; become familiarized with the train-the-trainer content; join a module workgroup; and be invited to participate in up to 5 virtual collaborative sessions to share resources, updates, implementation reflections, and more!
Leora Wolf-Prusan, Ed.D., is the School Mental Health Lead for the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, a project of SAMHSA that provides no-cost professional development to support the school mental health workforce in the Pacific Islands, Hawaii, California, Nevada, and Arizona. She formerly served as the field director for a SAMHSA Now Is The Time Initiative, ReCAST(Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma), which involved providing support to the 10 grantee cities and counties as they built city-based resiliency plans to respond to civil unrest due to community-based trauma. In addition to these national grants, she provides consulting and training for numerous other clients around issues related to school climate and positive youth development, educator mental health and wellness, and trauma- informed approaches to education.
