NCJ Number
195666
Date Published
September 2002
Length
46 pages
Annotation
One of eight guides designed to enhance school safety, this guide discusses how schools can improve their capacity to serve all students by linking with mental health and social service agencies.
Abstract
Public schools provide a natural environment within which to offer all students, including students with emotional needs, the support they need. The use of evidence-based and best-practice clinical interventions, including psychotropic medications and a range of psychosocial treatments, have proven effective in improving treatment outcomes in school-based settings. Locating services in schools can provide necessary support for all students while preventing restrictive placement for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Expanding mental health services in schools can address a number of barriers that make it difficult for children and families to access appropriate mental health care. For most children, especially for poor and minority youth, schools are the most readily available and easily accessible sites for the provision of a continuum of community-based mental health services. This guidebook is intended to help improve a school's capacity to provide universal, early, and intensive interventions to serve all students by linking with mental health and social service agencies. The topics addressed are school-community collaboration, "wraparound" care, a three-level approach to preventing violence, and a who's who in mental health services. 22 references and an annotated listing of 25 organizational resources