Promoting School-Based Mental Health Through a Countywide Summer Institute

Keri Weed, Ph.D.Department of PsychologyUniversity of South Carolina Aikenhttp://www.usca.edu/psychology/Weed/Keri.htmlSymposium: Using Community-Based Prevention Programs to Promote School-Based Mental Health APA Annual ConventionAugust 2006, New Orleans

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School-based mental health• “Schools are in a key position to identify

mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services”– The President’s New Freedom Commission on

Mental Health, 2003

• American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed school-based mental health with 11 specific recommendation– Committee on School Health, 2002-2003

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School-based mental health• “schools . . . will become increasingly

important as access to mental health services erodes in other contexts and because teachers are often the most aware of which children need help”– Campbell (2005) in introduction to special

issue of Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology focusing on school-based mental health services

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Aiken County Children’s Mental Health Task Force • Goals to reduce aggression and depression in

middle school youth

• Collaborative formed between school district and community agencies

• Programs included– School-based mental health services

– Natural Helpers/ Teen Line

– Summer Institute for Teachers

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Specific goals of Summer Institute for Teachers:

1. Provide participants with a broad overview and a deeper understanding of the local health and human services network

2. Give teachers, counselors, and other school personnel new knowledge, skills, tools and resources to help troubled, high-risk children and adolescents and their families

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3. Identify and define aspects of self-damaging and risky behaviors so often seen in children and adolescents today, and their impacts

4. Develop strategies for participants to identify helping professionals within their schools, and links to community resources

5. Create an opportunity for shared learning, so that area health and human services leaders also learn how to better support, communicate with, and meet the needs of colleagues in schools, thereby improving the quality of our collective services to children, adolescents, and families

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Participants• Applications were accepted from teachers, counselors,

and other school personnel at any level from schools throughout the county

• Participants were selected by random drawing, with oversight to ensure representation from all geographic areas

• A maximum of 50 participants were selected each summer

• Educators who successfully completed the week-long institute were awarded 60 staff development points for re-certification, along with a $200 stipend

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Evaluation

Daily satisfaction surveys

Usefulness of info, handouts, degree of interest, additional questions & concerns

Pre/post questionnaire

27 items rated on 4-point scale from ‘Strongly agree’ to ‘Strongly disagree’

Pretest completed during pre-registration

Posttest completed on last day of Institute

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Subscales

1. Agency Awareness – extent to which

educators were aware of local supports and services for troubled children and youth

2. Efficacy – reflected educators’ feelings of efficacy in dealing with troubled children and youth (Han & Weiss, 2005)

3. Control – feelings that efforts on behalf of troubled children and youth were not blocked by factors beyond their control

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Subscales

4. Tolerance – reflected tolerant attitudes

toward troubled students from families with a variety of lifestyles (e.g., single parents, teen mothers)

5. Optimism – accessed educators’ beliefs that troubled students had the ability to change their maladaptive behavior (Han & Weiss, 2005)

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Subscale scores before and after training

2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

aware control tolerant optimism efficacy

pre

post

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Quotes from educators• SI gave me tools to assist troubled youth and parents

to find help

• I can recognize better the signs of trouble beginning in youth

• I realize that I have more power to help troubled students than I thought I did

• I will be more patient and try harder to understand a kids behavior

• I feel a part of a team from within and without of school to join together to help troubled youth – hopefully before there is a serious problem

• I can pass on this info to others at my school – a watershed effect hopefully

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Where do we go from here?Clarify role of teachers and other

educators in school-based mental health

Models of teacher training

Paternite (2005) emphasizes need for enhanced evidence base related to SBMH that includes contextual factors that might influence effectiveness

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Where do we go from here?Han & Weiss (2005) identify critical

elements that depend on phase of implementation

Preimplementaion phase

Supported implementation

Sustainability phase

Long-term evaluation important

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Key references• New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

(2003). Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America. Final Report. DHHS Pub. No. SMA-03-3832. Rockville, MD.

• Committee on School Health (2004). School-based mental health services. Pediatrics, 113, 1839-1845.

• Han, S. S. & Weiss, B. (2005). Sustainability of teacher implementation of school-based mental health programs. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33, 665-679.