Promoting mental health in schools

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 2004

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2000

Nurse Education in Practice, 2017

Approximately three quarters of all major mental disorders begin in adolescence. Finding ways to buffer against stress, access social support and connection and flexibly draw upon a range of coping mechanisms are vital strategies that young people can use to promote mental health and wellbeing and to navigate this turbulent life transition successfully. Within Australia, like other parts of the world such as the UK and the USA, it is a sad reality that when young people do become distressed they are not selfcaring or supporting others effectively, and not seeking or receiving appropriate help. In order to respond proactively to this issue, a nurse-initiated mental health promotion program was developed. It is termed, iCARE, which stands for Creating Awareness, Resilience and Enhanced Mental Health. The aim of this paper is to discuss the underpinning educational theory that assists in developing in young people a sense of belonging, empathy, self-care and resilience, and why the strategies chosen to engage young people are likely to be effective.

Pastoral Care in Education, 2003

Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2013

Although there is increasing recognition internationally of the significance of social and emotional health and wellbeing for the healthy development of young people, the levels of support that governments provide for mental health policy and programme initiatives vary widely. In this paper, consideration is given to Australia's approach to mental health promotion from early years to secondary school, including specific reference to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative. Although it is now well established that schools provide important settings for the promotion of mental health initiatives, there are significant challenges faced in effectively implementing and maintaining the delivery of evidence-based practice in school settings, including concerns about quality assurance in processes of implementation, translation, dissemination and evaluation.

2017

Universal interventions in mental health promotion in schools are increasingly gaining salience as schools seek to provide more relevant and meaningful education matched to the realities of the twenty first century. A universal perspective of mental health is focused on mental health promotion for all students through a whole school approach.

2005

Health Education, 2016

Purpose Mentally Healthy WA developed and implemented the Mentally Healthy Schools Framework in 2010 in response to demand from schools wanting to promote the community-based Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion message within a school setting. Schools are an important setting for mental health promotion, therefore, the Framework encourages schools to adopt a whole-of-school approach to mental health promotion based on the World Health Organisation’s Health Promoting Schools framework. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A process evaluation was conducted consisting of six-monthly activity reports from 13 participating Western Australian schools. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with key school contacts in November 2011 with nine schools who had signed partner agreements prior to July 2011. Findings The schools valued promoting the mentally healthy message and the majority felt the programme was implemented successfully. More intens...

2010

Growing numbers of children are suffering needlessly because their emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs are not being met by the very institutions and systems that were created to take care of them.-U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001) found in Adelman and Taylor (2010) In public schools across the United States school administrators, teachers, psychologists, counselors and other support staff face the challenge of ensuring their students receive needed mental health services despite budget cuts and other significant logistical constraints. For example, with the elimination of AB3632 funding in 2010, Local Educational Agencies across California are feeling immense pressure to deliver mental health services to students who previously received assistance from the Department of Mental Health. A timely addition to the educational literature, authors Adelman and Taylor comprehensively address this juxtaposition of need and constraint in their most recent book, Mental Health in Schools: Engaging Learners, Preventing Problems, and Improving Schools. Within the text, readers are provided with valuable information regarding the restructure, development, and enhancement of school-based mental health programs. The authors open with a review of the history and current state of mental health in schools and move toward making suggestions for how to better address the mental health needs of students. They advocate persuasively for effective collaboration among stakeholders when providing mental health services in the public school systems. School psychologists, in particular, may find the guidelines provided by the authors useful in paving the way for school-based mental health service delivery models because they will undoubtedly be responsible for creating comprehensive programs to address student needs. PaSt School based mental health service providers have historically been tasked with large number of referrals for the provision of mental health services and it is estimated that the ratio of school psychologists to students will continue to rise from 1 to 2,500 to even larger numbers (Ringeisen, Henderson, & Hoagwood, 2003). Adelman and Taylor begin their analysis of mental health services with an historical review. The authors evaluate the proliferation of legislation and public policy, which has sparked various movements in the delivery of school-based mental health services. They argue that these undertakings, including the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) and the 2007 Progress Report on the President's New Freedom Initiative, have created conflicting agendas. These initiatives call for schools to be involved in the provision of mental health services while at the same time demanding that they