The Mid-America MHTTC spent a few days last month at #NatCon24 in St. Louis, MO!

In addition to attending many exciting and enriching presentations (including a keynote from Michelle Obama), Mid-America School Mental Health Program Director Dr. Erika Franta presented on Preventing and Addressing Violence in K-12 Schools alongside members of our Network Coordinating Office.

The panel, moderated by Ayla Colella, LMHC, featured MHTTC Coordinating Office Director Dr. Heather Gotham and Ricardo Canelo. Read the full description and learning objectives below:

School violence is shown to have short- and long-term impacts on students’ physical and mental well-being, and is considered an adverse childhood experience. The MHTTC Network’s School Mental Health Initiative aims to bring awareness to student mental health and evidence-based school mental health supports. This presentation will provide background on school violence prevention, intervention, and postvention; explore resources developed inside and outside of our Network to address school violence; and take a deeper dive into considerations for using a prevalent school violence strategy: behavioral threat assessment. The role of mental health treatment providers will be highlighted throughout.

Learning Objectives:

Provide a background on school violence and prevention strategies.

Describe resources available for school violence prevention, intervention, and postvention.

Identify gaps for school violence resource development.

Examine considerations for using behavioral threat assessment in schools.

Learn more about NatCon24 here.