(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Several of the articles in Issue #7, 2015 of Psychology in the Schools examine the role that school nurses play with other school personnel. The introduction to the speacial issue notes the lack of cooperation between nurses and mental health personnel. "The impetus for this special issue was the lack of research focused on the collaboration of school personnel (i.e., school psychologists and special education teachers) and school nurses. It is surprising that highly recognized professions working within schools, and who often work with same children, rarely collaborate with the goal of enhancing student learning. Although it is common for school psychologists to request vision and hearing examinations or to consult with school nurses regarding medication, active involvement of school nurses during the evaluation and classification process appears limited. In addition, school nurses appear to have limited input during the development and implementation of interventions. The primary aim of this special issue is to demonstrate how school personnel and school nurses can collaborate when developing prevention programs, addressing chronic health needs, and addressing the health needs of children with special needs. Another unique aspect of this special issue is that several of the articles were co-authored by a school nurse or nurse and a school psychologist." The articles in the special issue deal with topics such as continuum of care, identification and evaluation of autistic students, bullying prevention and response, students with disabilities, diabetes and other chronic diseases, responding to crises and roles within comprehensive school mental health promotion programs. Read more>>
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(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Three articles in Issue #6, 2015 of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry point towards a research evidence-based approach to school-based suicide prevention. The first article is an expedited systematic review of youth suicide prevention, specifically school-based strategies and no nschool-based interventions designed to prevent repeat attempts. "None of the seven reviews eventually examined that were addressing school-based prevention reported decreased suicide death rates based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or controlled cohort studies (CCSs), but reduced suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, and proxy measures of suicide risk were reported." The reviewers noted the lack of high quality studies currently available but still felt that policy/program recommendations should be made. Essentially, they recommended a combination of universal and targeted programs. The second article, actually, the editorial for the issue, examined other contributions. The editorial noted that Quebec's multi-level suicide prevention strategy had cut youth suicides by 50%, so it would make sense to include the recommended school programs within a larger strategy. The third article pointed out that "school connectedness" should be considered to be a universal mental health promotion strategy and program. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A special issue (Issue 2-3, 2015) of Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation examines the use of school psychologists as systems-level consultants as a strategy to deal with the complexities of the multi-level changes required to introduce and sustain comprehensive approaches to school mental health promotion. An interdisciplinary perspective is used to select the articles which cover topics such as Interdisciplinary Collaboration Supporting Social-Emotional Learning, Ecologically Based Organizational Consultations, the Competencies for Systems-Level Consultants, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, Collaboration Between School Psychologists and Administrators and Critical Features and Lessons Learned for Implementation. Read more>> Readers may also be interested in a similar ISHN description of a systems-based approach to SMH that is based on capacity and capacity-building at this web page.
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) ISHN facilitated an international project in 2010-12 on capacity and implementation issues in school mental health (SMH) promotion. One of the activities was to start the development of a capacity-based systems model that focused on ministry, agency, school and professional capacities. An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Health Promotion Practice describes a similar effort. The researchers examined statewide capacity for SMH using a post hoc application of a district capacity-building framework to interpret findings from a statewide coordinated school health needs/resource assessment. "Participants included school personnel (N = 643) from one state. Descriptive statistics were calculated for survey items, with further examination of subgroup differences among school administrators and nurses. Findings across districts revealed statewide strengths and gaps with regard to leadership and management capacities, internal and external supports, and an indicator of global capacity. Findings support the utility of using a common framework across local and state levels to align efforts and embed capacity-building activities within a data-driven, continuous improvement model." Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) The association between mental health disorders and being identified as a bully among children between the ages of 6 and 17 years in the United States is examined in an article in Issue #5, 2015 of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. "Data from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health were examined. A total of 63,997 children had data for both parental reported mental health and bullying status. Bivariate analysis and logistic regression was performed to assess the association between mental health status and being identified as a bully with an age-stratified analysis and sub-analysis by type of mental health disorder. In 2007, 15.2% of U.S. children ages 6 to 17 years were identified as bullies by their parent or guardian. Children with a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or depression had a threefold increased odds of being a bully" Read More>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) Regular readers of this blog will know that we have lamented the confusing presentations and ensuing studies about resilience that have emerged over recent years. Finally, an article and commentary in in the January 2015 Issue of Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry present a definition that does not lose the necessary, direct connection with adversity and presents both individual and environmental factors as well as their complex interactions. " This article presents diagnostic criteria for assessing childhood resilience in a way that is sensitive to the systemic factors that influence a child's wellbeing.A multidimensional assessment of resilience is presented that examines, first, the severity, chronicity, ecological level, children's attributions of causality, and cultural and contextual relevance of experiences of adversity. Second, promotive and protective factors related to resilience are assessed with sensitivity to the differential impact these have on outcomes depending on a child's level of exposure to adversity. These factors include individual qualities like temperament, personality, and cognitions, as well as contextual dimensions of positive functioning related to the available and accessibility of resources, their strategic use, positive reinforcement by a child's significant others, and the adaptive capacity of the environment itself. Third, an assessment of resilience includes temporal and cultural factors that increase or decrease the influence of protective factors. A decision tree for the diagnosis of resilience is presented, followed by a case study and diagnosis of a 15-year-old boy who required treatment for a number of mental health challenges." The commentary in the same issue notes: "Yet resilience approaches have been limited by a lack of conceptual clarity and ongoing questions about how to assess and measure it. In this context, Michael Ungar's Practitioner Review is an important contribution to practice". Read more>>
(From UCLA School Mental Health Project) A new book in January 2015 by the UCLA School Mental Health Project makes a cogent argument for transforming the fragmented delivery of various support services so that they truly support student learning and equitable educational opportunity. The authors begin with this " external and internal barriers to learning and teaching have continued to pose some of the most pervasive and entrenched challenges to educators across the country, particularly in chronically low performing schools. Failure to directly address these barriers ensures that (a) too many children and youth will continue to struggle in school, and (b) teachers will continue to divert precious instructional time to dealing with behavior and other problems...Transforming student and learning supports is key to school improvement. To this end, this book incorporates years of research and prototype development and a variety of examples from trailblazing efforts" They go on to say "Mapping a school district’s existing efforts to address problems yields a consistent picture of many practices and fragmented, piecemeal, and usually disorganized activity (as illustrated below). The range of such learning and student supports generally is extensive and expensive". They also go on to describe the cause and this is where we might disagree: "Underlying the fragmentation is a fundamental policy problem, namely the long-standing marginalization of student and learning supports in school improvement policy and practice. Thus, most efforts to directly use student and learning supports to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students are not a primary focus in school improvement planning. " In our view, a major cause of the fragmentation is that the mandates and funding of the various health, social and other services is done in a sporadic, competitive and disjointed manner. Part of the transformation will require that health and other ministries re-organize their work so that they are accountable for providing consistent support for students most at risk, rather than always worrying about the optimal health of all students in universal programs. There have often been attempts to insert health outputs and outcomes into school system accountability. In our view, this should be a two-way street, with health and other systems being accountable for a reasonable number of educational outputs, particularly for more vulnerable students. Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) As with many other health issues, mental health advocates often focus on teachers as the key agent in school-based and school-linked mental health promotion. Their "mental health literacy", their willingness to care for their students and their roles in identifying, referring, managing students with problems, which are often presented as disruptive classroom behaviours, are added to their responsibilities to teach all students about mental health, social and emotional learning skills as well as promote mindfulness and resilience, encourage or discourage student friendships and inform, involve ,educate and support parents as well as involve community partners and work with self-help groups. An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Advances in School Mental Health investigated teacher perceptions about their roles and self-efficacy. The researchers note that "Interviews were conducted with 21 teachers from Canberra, Australia. Teachers viewed supporting student mental health as part of their role, though perceived a lack of knowledge and skills in mental health-related areas. They clearly emphasized the need to work within a well-coordinated pastoral care (or secular care) system". The researchers suggest that "Additional training in mental health and clear role delineation within the school may assist teachers to feel better prepared to effectively and appropriately support student mental health." Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) Sharon Stephan, Editor of the journal Advances in School Mental Health offers a brief commentary issue #1, 2015 on the increased amount and quality of knowledge exchanges about school mental health that is taking place in that journal, as well as at international and national conferences and workshops. In our work within the clipping service provided to ISHN members, we note similar growth in journals focused on school mental health (Psychology in Schools, School Psychology Quarterly, Canadian Journal of School Psychology, School Psychology International, Professional School Counselling, School Mental Health, Educational Psychology, Journal of Positive Bevaior Interventions, Journal of School Psychology,) as well as a greater focus on schools within the 43 more general journals covering mental health in general. This trend to address school mental health programs, issues and aspects is also evident in our reviews of many other education, health and welfare journasl among the 300+ that we review each month/quarter. The challenge associated with this increased attention and explosion of articles is to organize this into a coherent and organized body of knowledge that promote a comprehensive, multi-intervention approach consistent with our growing understandings about ecological and systems-based approaches. ISHN is pleased to be working with experts such as Sharon and Stan Kutcher in our International Discussion Group on SMH. Read more from the Stephan article. Visit the International Discussion Group on SMH
(From the ISHN Member information service) The US Department of Education announced the winners of their research granting program on educational innovations this week. The focus of these large grants (1.5 million + for each) was on mental health issues, including resilience, social emotional learning, integrated mental health services and many more topics. The extent to which these grants are coordinated with the efforts of non-educational sectors will help to determine their ultimate impact on education and other systems. Read more>>
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