Afraid of Opening Pandora's Box? How to Address Student Needs After Mental Health Screening in Schools (August 2022)
Schools are increasingly interested and engaged in universal mental health screening for students to inform early detection and intervention to promote student well-being. However, given the increase in child and adolescent mental health needs increasing over recent decades, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, social media, racial violence and other recent events, schools are understandably concerned about how they will practically and ethically meet the mental health needs of students if they conduct universal screening. This learning session provides practical information about evidence-informed screening practices to help protect school systems from identifying more student mental health need than they can reasonably address. This includes activities schools can engage in prior to screening (e.g., resource mapping, surveillance screening) as well as during the screening process (e.g., gradual scale-up). We also discuss strategies to address student mental health needs that go beyond referral to mental health treatment (i.e., “Tier 3”), with a focus on options available to low-resource settings that experience barriers to care such as mental health professional shortages. Field examples of mental health screening and how student needs were addressed are provided.
Measurement-Based Care Series (November 2021-March 2022)
Student mental health early intervention (Tier 2) and treatment (Tier 3) services and supports are a vital component of any comprehensive school mental health system, but how student-centered, evidence-based, and effective are they?
Part I: Introduction to Measurement-based Care for more Personalized, Collaborative, and Effective School Mental Health Interventions (November 2021)
In this session, Dr. Connors provides guidance on how your school or district team can integrate measurement-based care (MBC) in your Tier 2 and 3 services to improve service quality, track outcomes, and sustain these crucial services for students with emerging or existing mental health needs. This session provides information on what MBC is, why it is useful for schools, how to locate free and low-cost progress measures, and best practices in training and implementation support for school professionals.
View this session to hear about how your school or district team can implement measurement-based care (MBC) in your Tier 2 and 3 services to improve service quality, track outcomes, and sustain crucial services for students with emerging or existing mental health needs. MBC is the ongoing use of student-, parent- and teacher-reported progress measures to inform personalized, collaborative, effective interventions. This session provides practical strategies to implement MBC in schools by sharing information on: (1) free, validated assessment measures; (2) tips on how to promote student and parent participation; (3) criteria for evaluating data system options; and (4) approaches to design effective training and ongoing support for your school mental health professionals.
The Southeast MHTTC created a comprehensive product catalogue of the resources and information they have published. Click here to view the full product catalogue. Additionally, these products are presented on the following pages of our website:
Key Resources
Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems: Foundations
Mental Health Services and Supports in Schools
Funding, Sustainability, and Impact
Diverse Populations, Equity, and Inclusion
