Products and Resources Catalog

After 10 years of research, Proud & Empowered has shown efficacy to support its use in school and community settings. The 10-week small group intervention uses a mix of didactic learning strategies to support LGBTQ+ youth as they navigate their family, peer, school and other community environments. Hosted in partnership with the Center of Excellence on LGBTQ+ Behavioral Health Equity (CoE-LGBTQ+) and the MHTTC Network Coordinating Office, this presentation offers an overview of the intervention and allows for Q&A.

  All public schools in California are required to offer Identity Support Plans (IDSP) for LGBTQ+ students in elementary, middle, and high school.  This tool guides California public middle and high schools through the development of a plan to support LGBTQ+ students’ identity, success, and safety at school. It is designed for school staff, caregivers, and the student to work together to complete the document. This tool supports districts’ commitment to making educational spaces safe and supportive for ALL students, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.   All available IDSP tools and supporting documents can be accessed on the main product page. 

  All public schools in California are required to offer Identity Support Plans (IDSP) for LGBTQ+ students in elementary, middle, and high school.  The IDSP for secondary schools supports public middle and high school staff in California to work with gender-diverse students, and potentially their caregivers, to identify ways in which the student’s identity is respected and supported at school. The IDSP process fosters an educational environment that is safe and supportive for ALL students, and it serves as an effective tool to help guide school staff through conversations with families, other caregivers, and children.  This document explains the IDSP process, provides guidance about how to use the IDSP tool, and offers strategies and discussion tips that school staff can use when working with caregivers and students.   All available IDSP tools and supporting documents can be accessed on the main product page. 

  All public schools in California are required to offer Identity Support Plans (IDSP) for LGBTQ+ students in elementary, middle, and high school.  This Identity Support Plan for Elementary (IDSPE) is a form designed to be filled out collaboratively by school staff, the student, and the student’s caregiver(s) to ensure that students feel safe in classrooms and across the school environment.  The IDSPE tool was created to help gender-diverse students share anything that might make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable. It also gives students a chance to share and express how they feel about their name and gender expression or identity. You can also access the corresponding Identity Support Plan for Elementary (IDSPE) Explainer, which explains the IDSPE process, provides guidance about how to use the IDSPE tool, and offers strategies and discussion tips that school staff can use when working with caregivers and students.   All available IDSP tools and supporting documents can be accessed on the main product page. 

  All public schools in California are required to offer Identity Support Plans (IDSP) for LGBTQ+ students in elementary, middle, and high school.  An Identity Support Plan for Elementary (IDSPE) supports public school staff in California to work with gender-diverse students, and potentially their caregivers, to identify strategies for ensuring that their identity is respected and supported. The IDSPE process fosters an educational environment that is safe and supportive for ALL students, and it serves as an effective tool to help guide school staff conversations with families, other caregivers, and children. This document explains the IDSPE process, provides guidance about how to use the IDSPE tool, and offers strategies and discussion tips that school staff can use when working with caregivers and students.   All available IDSP tools and supporting documents can be accessed on the main product page. 

Social media literacy is necessary for equitable mental health and the mental health workforce can help their clients build these skills. As a first step, mental health providers should pursue their own social media literacy, the “the practical, cognitive, and affective competences required to access, analyze, evaluate, and create content on social media in a variety of contexts.”   When providers are themselves digitally literate, they are prepared to support youth, young adults, and caregivers to develop and maintain healthy relationships with social media.  These skills can assist the mental health workforce in helping clients set appropriate boundaries, recognize mis- or disinformation, and protect themselves from the negative consequences of exposure to damaging content.    As the research summaries provided in this resource list indicate, social media can be both a powerful tool for connection and support and a space that can cause or extenuate mental health inequities.   This resource is a part of our Pacific Southwest MHTTC’s suite of programming, aimed to enhance the mental and school mental health workforce’s skills, knowledge, and awareness of how the positive and negative psychological impact of social media on youth and young adults.   We offer this list of resources, guidelines, and tips to support healthy use of social media.  These free, publicly accessible links give mental health providers information about the risks and benefits of social media for adolescents and youth. The links are offered as resources to be distributed to providers’ clients, including youth and their family/caregivers. 

This brief report examines the reported prevalence of sadness and hopelessness, suicidal ideation, bullying, fighting, and current substance use among high school age youth in the Southeast region’s eight states. These data are derived from the 2021 Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System.

This brief report examines the reported prevalence of sadness and hopelessness, suicidal ideation, bullying, fighting, and current drug and alcohol use among high school age youth in the Southeast region’s eight states. These data are derived from the 2021 Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System.

Recent prevalence estimates indicate that 1 in 36 school-age children have autism. Autistic students are much more likely than non-autistic students to experience mental health challenges, including difficulty with flexibility.  This infographic provides information about strategies that can be used by educators to help autistic students navigate situations that differ from their expectations. This infographic includes how to teach these flexibility strategies in a manner that is inclusive and neurodiversity affirming.

Participants learned how to:  Describe how both positive and negative attentional biases may contribute to suicide risk  Describe the Broaden and Build theory of positive emotions  Describe specific strategies to increase one's attention to positive emotions and experiences   Presenter: Shirley Yen, PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology, Harvard Medical School This hybrid event was co-hosted by Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet.

Welcome to the 2023-24 school year! We hope you had a fantastic summer.  To kick off this year, we present the following haiku: School bells are ringing Doors open widely for all  Eager students near Teachers greet students Classrooms are freshly prepared   Lesson plans begin  Anxious, distracted  Not all students adapt well Coping skills needed Who can they turn to? You! Mental health champions Assess, plan, support Action drives outcomes Building teams create promise Kids begin to thrive We invite you to read and access the many resources shared in this newsletter edition to help your students thrive. Wishing you a wonderful start to the new school year.  Best Wishes, The NWMHTTC School Mental Health Team   Sign up for our School Mental Health Newsletter!  Want more information and school mental health resources? Visit the Northwest MHTTC's School Mental Health page and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates about events, trainings, and resources available to the Northwest region.

A joint project of the National Federation of Families, National Family Support Technical Assistance Center, and the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, this tip sheet provides vetted resources and links for school, family, and community leaders to address school culture and climate. Access this publication for tips on what families, parents, caregivers, individual educators, family peer specialists, and mental health providers can do to address the young person engaging in bullying behavior while school and family leaders address school culture and climate and support the child being bullied.

  This is a recording of Workshop 2 in the Back to School Series, “Giving Voice to Youth Psychological Strengths: A Photovoice Partnership Project,” that took place on August 16, 2023.   In this second session, faculty from California State University, Sacramento’s School Psychology Program and staff and students from Natomas Pacific Pathways Preparatory (NP3) High School showcased the Photovoice Partnership Project, “Giving Voice to Youth Psychological Strengths.”   CSUS Anchor University Grant-funded this project, and it was carried out in a collaboration between the NP3 High School students, counselors, and school psychologists; and CSUS School Psychology faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students. The webinar celebrates the outcome of this project, that entailed a timeline of ten weeks in which NP3 students worked to (a) define psychological strengths such as self-efficacy, self-awareness, empathy, optimism, and gratitude; (b) examine sources of psychological strength in their school, peer, and family networks; and (c) produce photovoice projects illustrating their “world of strengths.”   View this video for a brief introduction to the project, featuring individual project presentations by each of the students, tools used to ground the activities, such as the CoVitality strengths-based mental health screener, and a question and answer discussion with the faculty, Dr. Meagan O'Malley and Jeremy Greene, MA, NCSP, LEP.   

In furthering our efforts to meet people where they are and foster healthy practices in adolescents and youth, the Great Lakes MHTTC and Wisconsin PATCH (Providers and Teens Communicating for Health) asked teens to describe the best ways adults can partner with youth and what motivates young people to get involved with organizations like PATCH. The responses featured in this resource were provided by teenage participants of the PATCH Teen Educators program.    This product was created with our valued partners at Wisconsin PATCH.  

This resource highlights how Buffalo Grove High School implemented Classroom WISE, as part of the 2023 Classroom WISE School TA Opportunity. To learn more about Classroom WISE, visit www.classroomwise.org.

This resource highlights how Provisional Accelerated Learning Academy implemented Classroom WISE, as part of the 2023 Classroom WISE School TA Opportunity. To learn more about Classroom WISE, visit www.classroomwise.org.

Motivational interviewing (MI) provides us with a way to have conversations about change. Practitioners use MI with adolescents, young adults, and parents to successfully support their values and guide them toward their own desired change targets. In this session, Dr. Dempsey discussed research-based MI interventions for youth and specific strategies to reduce resistance and engage young people in conversations about and movement toward personally meaningful change.   Viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives:  Determine at least one type of motivation-based intervention appropriate for children, adolescents/young adults, and parents. Construct at least one values-based intervention to help guide adolescent and young adults toward change targets. Practice two interventions to reduce resistance and support autonomy of youth engaged in conversations about change. Design one conversation about change intended to support and guide parents of youth involved in change.

This is a recording of the Closing Session in the Aging Out or Growing Together? Flipping the Youth Services Paradigm to Better Support Young Adulthood series. This final session took place on July 26, 2023 and featured special guests Rudy Corpuz, Executive Director of United Playaz; Associate Director John Torres of Youth ALIVE!, and Mariaynez Carasco, Program Coordinator of Mission Neighborhood Centers. Region 9's Technical Assistance and Training Specialist Oriana Ides facilitated a discussion to address how organizational values, program design, implementation strategies, and long-term visions for young adults can expand to support their evolving needs. This session is designed for agencies and individuals that serve transition-aged youth and young adults and explore themes specific to the needs of this age group.

This is a recording of the Social Media & Youth: Perils, Powers, and Pathways to Resilience panel on August 1, 2023. The Pacific Southwest MHTTC gathered a group of leaders in the fields of social science research, mental health and youth advocacy including Senior Research Scientist and Director of Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab at Wellesley College, Linda Charmaraman; Founder/CEO of Log OFF Movement, Emma Lembke; Assistant Professor of Equity, Diversity and Justice in Education at University of Colorado, Boulder, Tiera Tanksley; and Outpatient Therapist, Skyler Blankenship. Together, they presented and discussed the risk factors and benefits of social media for young people. The session focused on strategies for fostering a more empowered, healthier relationship with digital technology and provided a nuanced view of both the perils and powers of social media use for youth.   This session is designed for providers who work with youth, young adults and their families and viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives:  Understand the positive and negative psychological impact of social media on youth and young adults Identify strategies mental health providers can use in supporting youth to reflect on their social media use, make meaning of it, and develop coping responses to harmful exposure  Learn about available tools and resources to support diversion and self-regulation in social media use Understand risk factors and impacts to specific populations of youth around social media harms  Support community efforts and advocate for improved monitoring and filtering of social media while supporting healthy social development

This workshop introduces the dominant theoretical model of anxiety disorders and the best-established treatment: exposure-based CBT. Strategies for making the most of exposures to achieve optimal outcomes for anxious youth will be illustrated, and practical application discussed. The training will include didactics, experiential activities, video modeling and behavioral rehearsal of exposure strategies.       Facilitator     Dr. Sarah Kate Bearman Sarah Kate Bearman’s research focuses on the dissemination and implementation of empirically supported practices (ESPs) for underserved youth in community settings. Her research examines the processes and contexts that promote and support the effective use and sustainability of ESPs, with particular focus on treatment redesign, training and supervision, and the use of non-traditional providers and settings to increase ESP access. Bearman also has many years of experience in the development, testing, and dissemination of effective treatments for youth. She provides both clinical supervision and national trainings for therapists in the use of empirically supported practices for anxiety, depression, disruptive conduct and traumatic stress.

Individuals recovering from a first episode of psychosis are prone to high rates of comorbid medical disorders due to a combination of lifestyle, medication, and self-management factors. This presentation provides practical guidance regarding strategies for promoting a healthier lifestyle and integrated training in mental health and physical illness self-management. Principles of effective supports to improve physical health in persons with FEP, as well as multi-episode clients, are illustrated with clinical vignettes.   Presenter: Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D. is Professor of Occupational Therapy and Psychological and Brain Sciences, researcher at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. His research interests are on the development and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for persons with serious mental illnesses.   This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET).   View a recording of this 7/28/23 session here. 

Recent prevalence estimates indicate that 1 in 36 school-age children have autism. Autistic students are much more likely than non-autistic students to experience mental health challenges, including difficulty with emotion regulation.  This infographic provides information about strategies educators can use to support autistic students that experience emotion regulation challenges in a manner that is inclusive and neurodiversity affirming.

The UW SMART Center Speaker Series brought esteemed scholars virtually to elevate our understanding of issues related to school mental health and critical topics in education. This year's speaker series on Equity-Centered MTSS and Implications for School Mental Health was a success, leaving participants inspired and eager for more. The event showcased a diverse range of experts, engaging discussions, and practical insights into implementing equitable MTSS in educational settings. "More of it! This presentation was FANTASTIC!!!" "Loved the whole series of Equitable MTSS. Would love more next year!" "I liked how it was thoughtful and balanced, not only supporting students but also supporting staff in doing important work. I liked the emphasis on collecting data to inform decisions and cultural wisdom or sensitivity." "Thank you for this. I am in my studies to be a school counselor and this has given perspective!" "Great reminders to utilize data through an equity lens, and to remember that behind the data is a student"   The school mental health supplement to the Northwest MHTTC co-sponsored the UW SMART Center's 2023 Virtual Speaker Series. Full Series details can be accessed here. Learn more about the UW SMART Center here.   Want more information and school mental health resources? Visit the Northwest MHTTC's School Mental Health page and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates about events, trainings, and resources available to the Northwest region.

Pride Month is a month long celebration of the history, culture, and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and their communities. Here are a few ways you can support and affirm LGBT students in your classroom. And remember these activities and displays should be implemented in a way that respects the individual comfort and privacy of LGBTQ students, and seeks to create an inclusive and affirming environment for all students.