Thomasville City Schools SCHOOL BASED MENTAL HEALTH Providing
Thomasville City Schools SCHOOL BASED MENTAL HEALTH
Providing Access Where Students Are • Out of youth that access treatment, 7080% of them do so in school • Adolescents with access to school-based health clinics are 10 x more likely to make a visit related to mental health or substance use compared to adolescents without a school-based clinic Kaplan et al. , 1998
Number of Current Students Served • Lorven: Total 54 students - 35 TPS, 9 LDES, 6 TMS, 4 THS • TCS SBT: Total 68 Students – 12 TPS, 14 LDES, 21 TMS, 21 THS • Total number of TCS students receiving therapy services at the schools - 122 • Numbers are as of 11/21
Impact of Accessing Support in Schools • Access to school-based mental health services is linked to: – Improved academic outcomes – Enhanced physical and psychological safety – Improved behaviors in the school and decreased disciplinary actions – Less school violence – Reduced dropout Michael, et al. , 2013; Ballard, Sander, & Kilmes. Dougan, 2014; Center for School Mental Health, 2014
School Mental Health Initiative Summer 2015 • a partnership of concerned citizens with the collective purpose of ensuring that all children in North Carolina have access to mental health and substance use services Mission: • It is the mission of this partnership to provide implementation and monitoring support to ensure that public school students in North Carolina have equitable access to a full continuum of high-quality and well-coordinated socioemotional/behavioral health services.
State Board Policy • Each Local Education Agency (LEA)/charter school shall develop and implement a plan for assessing and improving upon the effectiveness of existing supports for the mental health and substance use needs of its student population. The plan must address a continuum of services that consists of the following elements: (i) universal prevention; (ii) early intervention services; and (iii) referral, treatment, and re-entry, as further described below. The plan shall provide for stakeholder engagement to achieve a coordinated system of support in the school and community for students and their families. The plan must be approved by the local governing board and reviewed at least every three years. • Development of the LEA plan for assessing and improving upon the effectiveness of existing supports for the mental health and substance use needs of its student population, including plans for staff training, will occur during the 2017 -2018 school year. In the 2018 -2019 school year LEA plan implementation and three-year review cycle will commence
Continuum • Public schools, families, community providers, managed care organizations, will jointly create a plan for meeting the mental health and substance use needs of all NC public school students. The continuum will include: • • • Education of staff and students pre-K-12 Promotion of healthy school communities Universal screening Supplemental supports Intensive services for students and families • To ensure accountability, the plan will include a system to evaluate the quality of mental health and substance use services and measure student outcomes.
Wicked Systemic Problems: Mental Health Problems / Disorders Can Be Prevented Through School-Based Programs • Core skill building programs (e. g. , social awareness and problem-solving programs) and changing school ecology (e. g. , promoting pro-social behavior through reinforcement and education to reduce stigma) enhance resilience and reduce risk factors (World Health Organization, 2004)
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