Session: What Does It Take for Schools to Provide High Quality Mental Health Services K to 12? Lessons Learned from IES Development Research (Society for Prevention Research 24th Annual Meeting)

Research has identified many promising practices to help the almost 20 percent of school-age children in the United States who experience a mental health disorder such as disruptive behavior, anxiety, or depression. What is not yet known is how to bring these promising practices into schools in ways that retain their ability to improve mental health and support learning. The purpose of this organized paper symposium is to discuss challenges and opportunities in transforming effective, clinic-based mental health treatments into school-based interventions. This symposium illustrates the Special Conference theme “Enhancing Physical, Social, and Economic Environments to Improve Health Equity” by highlighting efforts to make schools a platform to provide accessible mental health services to all students in need. The symposium will highlight three Development and Innovation projects supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U. S. Department of Education. Each of these research teams used an iterative development process to transform an existing clinic-based mental health treatment into a feasible, acceptable, and beneficial school-based approach. The projects collectively begin to address how to improve mental health equity at each major level of schooling in the K to 12 system – elementary, middle and high school.

The first paper in this organized paper symposium focuses on the elementary school context and describes the development process for the CALM (Child Anxiety Learning Modules) intervention. The CALM protocol utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) strategies and is being developed for elementary school nurses to implement with children who have excessive anxiety. The second paper focuses on the middle school context and describes efforts to adapt and refine an after-school program that targets the organizational difficulties of middle school students with ADHD. The HOPS (Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills) intervention is designed to be feasible for school counselors or psychologists in middle schools to implement during the school day. The third paper focuses on the high school context and describes the development of a flexible mental health intervention for high school students. The Brief Intervention for School Clinicians (BRISC) allows school-based clinicians to quickly assess students’ needs, develop treatment strategies, and monitor progress. All three papers will highlight the unique features of schools that facilitate effective service provision for all students with mental health needs.