How school systems can improve health and well-being: topic brief: mental health

For youth with mental disorders, targeted treatment and services that help manage symptoms might improve some educational outcomes. Mental illness is negatively correlated with educational attainment, and youth with special-education designations of emotional disturbance experience some of the poorest educational outcomes of any disability category. K–12 programs are therefore poorly targeted, allocating resources away from areas with the greatest potential benefit.

Implementing Mental Health Programs in Schools

In 2022 and 2023, CMS issued guidance to increase the accessibility of these services by eliminating some of the practical barriers that schools faced when delivering services through Medicaid. The California Healthy Minds, Thriving Kids ProjectExplore a series of free videos for parents, educators and students titled Understanding Thoughts, all available in English and Spanish. Bereavement GuidelinesDeveloped by the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement these guidelines are designed to help school staff, administrators and crisis team members respond to student needs after a loss impacting the school environment. The action guide describes six in-school strategies that are proven to promote and support mental health and well-being.

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School Mental Health Assessment, Research & Training (SMART) CenterThe SMART Center promotes high-quality, culturally responsive programs, practices and policies to meet the full range of social, emotional and behavioral (SEB) needs of students in both general and special education contexts. NCSMH’s School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) SystemThe SHAPE system is a public-access, web-based platform that offers schools, districts and states a workspace and targeted resources to support school mental health quality improvement. Every morning, elementary and secondary students circle up with a Crew leader to check in on their social, emotional, and academic health; get support where needed; and engage in relationship-building initiatives. Wang’s first step to https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/02/18/when-strength-resilience-and-blackgirlmagic-is-a-burden/ seek help for her mental health challenges was seeing her school counselor, who’s charged with helping students plan for their futures as well as helping them work through emotional challenges. Some of Weist’s recent research has involved integrating mental health professionals and supports with schools’ use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, an approach used to set and reinforce behavior expectations for students, and intervene when students have more serious behavior problems.

The Importance of Mental Health in Schools: A Guide For Educators

The WHO argued that mental health policies should include mental health promotion and not be limited to the health sector, but also involve education, labour, justice, transport, environment, housing, and welfare. Without the security and freedom provided by these rights, arguably it is difficult to maintain high levels of mental health. The World Health Organisation defines mental health promotion as actions to create living conditions and environments that support mental health and allow people to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles. To address this, it is important to pay attention to promotion and prevention practice, with schools being well-placed to deliver.

• This guidance does not help schools figure out which programs to select out of the smorgasbord of available options.
• The widespread use of technology and social media have both positive and negative effects on mental health .
• First steps by the education system should more closely address underlying adversity in ways that are natural to schools.

Some students turn to alcohol or other substances as a way to cope with stress, alleviate peer pressure, or lessen emotional pain. Situations such as divorce, economic hardship, housing insecurity, or substance abuse in the home can all place emotional strain on students. These students may struggle with impulse control, focus, or emotional regulation, often leading to misinterpretation of their needs as purely disciplinary. Conditions such as ADHD or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) can impact how students engage with learning and authority figures. Some students place intense pressure on themselves to achieve academically, whether due to personal drive or family expectations.

Some organizations that have implemented new mental health supports have chosen to separate them from the physical school setting. ” A qualitative analysis of those responses found that a spectrum of strategies to support students’ mental wellness exists. In 2021, Frontline surveyed over 7,000 school administrators and school health officials about their perceptions of student mental health management. This chapter presents the key principles underpinning a whole school approach to mental health and well-being and outlines the major challenges involved in implementing such an approach and how these may be addressed.