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School-based/linked Mental Health Services
This page lists resources on the school-based and school-linked delivery of mental health, mental illness treatment and other related services.
Mental Health Services
As was discussed briefly at the June 11/07 meeting, schools can and often do serve as a key entry point for mental health services. In follow up comments, Dr. Albert Lee from Hong Kong noted the key role school settings play particularly around early detection of problems. The aforementioned School-link program has proven as a valuable model for this in a non-stigmatizing manner. Dr. Lee also noted that there have been good studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of primary mental health care services. He is planning to do further study in this area (note: follow up links to these studies is forthcoming). He ended his written comments with a reminder of the importance to not lose focus on whole school approaches to mental health noting that while early detection and access to appropriate services are important, it is equally important that we remain focused on the concept of health promoting school or comprehensive school health approach as evidence does show the improvement in mental well being of students worldwide. Adequate resources are needed for schools to assess their school health profile and how this would be improved. Dr. Lee also suggested that the identification of predicting factors for emotional problems in young people could have great impact in preventive measures.
Brock University, in partnership with the Hinks-Dellcrest Centre has launched a new web site ABC's of Mental Health: Mental Health Resources for Teachers. The web site URL is: http://www.brocku.ca/teacherresource/ABC/ or http://www.hincksdellcrest.org/teacher-resource-project.html. This recource provides teachers and other education professionals with information formatted to be accessible, easy-to-use, and helpful for educators who wish to recognize and identify behaviour that causes them concern. It provides prevention and early intervention strategies to promote learning and mental health, and tips on finding help for childen with mental health problems
Vancouver Coastal Health offers a number of population based/health promotion services for school children. However, the programs described in the attachment are specific to mental health services for individuals through collaboration between health and schools, funded by public health dollars and by mental health dollars. We work very closely with the Vancouver School Board, the public health services of the Medical Health Officer legislated through the BC School Act which names the MHO as the School Medical Officer. Related services not described in the attachment include, funded through public health, include:
- Addictions Counselors for youth, whose work includes going to the schools
- Youth clinic counselors, who work at the youth clinics, but will also go to the schools when requested by school counselors
- Infant psychiatry/ prevention and early detection/intervention, up through kindergarten age
Griefworks BC, a program inside BC Children’s & Women’s Health Centre, has developed an interactive, online environment that allows for private, anonymous, facilitated group support. Groups can be formed for any purpose, at any time and may be joined no matter where the person is located, as long as there is access to the internet.
According to Dr. Joyce Ternes, Director of Psychology, Children's & Women's Health Center of B.C “… this technology has many applications including pre and post traditional face to face group work, or in remote centres were face to face contact is not realistic. The program also can be set up to link with specific educational material so that the sessions could be used to reinforce materials presented in the group session.” The contact person is Kay Johnson, Director, Griefworks BC, her email address is: kjohnson@cw.bc.ca.
Another program, also noted by Dr. Ternes is from About Face for use in schools to help children understand and accept children with facial differences. It specifically addresses issues of stigma, teasing, bullying and coping with differences generally. Although its main emphasis is physical differences, it was suggested that it could be easily adapted to include mental health issues. The program can be accessed from the About Face Website: http://aboutfaceinternational.org/programs/school_programs/index.php.
Michelle Kilborn, Curriculum Manager, Wellness Programs in the Curriculum Branch, Alberta Education sent along the Mental Health Framework that Alberta is working with. Details on this work are captured in the following overview with a complete report available at http://www.health.gov.ab.ca/resources/publications/MHChildrenFW.pdf.
Optimizing Mental Health for Alberta's Children and Youth: A Framework for Action (2006-2016): Optimizing the mental health of Alberta’s children and youth was identified as a priority in Advancing the Mental Health Agenda: A Provincial Mental Health Plan for Alberta (2004). The Alberta government is committed to supporting the mental well-being of children, youth, and their families, and providing effective services for those who are experiencing mental health problems and/or mental illness.
Much cross-ministerial work has previously been done to develop a policy framework for children’s mental health. Alberta Health and Wellness (AHW) has adapted this work in Optimizing Mental Health for Alberta’s Children and Youth: A Framework for Action (2006-2016). The framework for action, consistent with the Provincial Mental Health Plan, identifies three strategic directions: building capacity to foster optimal mental health; reducing risks to optimal mental health; and providing support and treatment for children, youth, families and communities.
Activities to support the strategic directions include health promotion, prevention, early intervention, crisis intervention and stabilization, treatment intervention, community supports, and collaboration supports.
A comprehensive implementation plan has been developed in collaboration with ministries, regional health authorities, local government agencies, other community service providers, and youth. The Plan is currently in the approval process. In order to quickly address identified areas of need, AHW recently invested $38.9 million in children’s mental health, and will be working through the Alberta Mental Health Board to get the money to Alberta communities to improve the mental health and well-being of Alberta’s children, youth and their families.
These projects include:
- Alberta Takes Action to Enhance and Support Community Help: A project to implement programs designed to assist youth to identify their natural helpers in the community who will then be offered training, resources, linkages and support to continue doing the important work they are already doing to facilitate the mental health and well-being of Alberta’s youth. Programs will be developed and delivered in both urban and rural settings and in Aboriginal communities.
- Alberta Takes Action on Intentional Drug Overdoses: A project to decrease intentional drug overdoses in youth, particularly young women, by first investigating the classes of drugs used and then working to introduce policy for packaging and distribution.
- Alberta Takes Action on Active Postvention: A project to enhance community and regional capacity to develop, implement and evaluate services and support programs for those bereaved by suicide. Children and youth in Alberta are at risk due to losses by suicide of parents, mentors, friends, and other significant people in their lives.
- Mental Health Capacity Building Pilots in Schools: A project with an overall aim to increase coping behaviours, knowledge, and skills of children and youth to enable them to make choices and adopt behaviours to self-protect their mental and physical health at as early an age as possible. This will be accomplished through establishing integrated, multisectoral, multidisciplinary teams at each level of schooling in each health region who will implement school-based mental health promotion, illness prevention and early intervention programs. Services will be based on the unique needs of each community. The teams will also reach out to parents and assist them in their skill and capacity to create an environment for their children conducive to mental wellness. This project is an expansion of a current capacity building project funded by the Mental Health Innovation Fund in four pilot sites across Alberta: Brooks, Calgary, High Level and Peace River. These pilot sites are targeting various populations of children and youth including new immigrants (Brooks and Calgary) and transitional grades 4, 7 and 10 (Peace River). Brooks was the first pilot site to implement the project, recruiting full-time school liaison counselors in three schools and a mental health therapist and health nurse that the schools share. This project addresses all three strategic directions identified in the framework for action: building capacity, reducing risk, and providing treatment and support.
- Leaving a Legacy: Mental Health First Aid Training for Teachers A project to ensure that teachers in every school in Alberta are trained in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a promising and evidence-based program developed by the Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia to improve mental health literacy. The AMHB, through a Memorandum of Understanding with Australia, is the primary contact for rolling out the MHFA program across Canada. Alberta is the first province in Canada to train instructors in MHFA, and to date 22 instructors across the province have been trained. The goal of this children’s mental health project is to have the MHFA course available to teachers and parents in every school in Alberta. By improving mental health literacy, support will be available through trained natural helpers such as teachers and parents for children and youth experiencing mental health problems before professional help is needed or obtained. This is consistent with the principle that children need to be seen in the context of their social environments, and that early intervention and support leads to better outcomes for children, youth and their families experiencing mental health problems.
Youth Net Hamilton (www.youthnethamilton.ca) is a mental health promotion and early intervention program for youth ages 13 to 18. The program is funded and administered by Hamilton Public Health services and supported by the Youth Net Hamilton Coalition. It promotes youth mental health in two ways.
First, Youth Net Hamilton reaches out through Focus Groups in secondary schools and community settings. Facilitated by older trained youth ages 19 - 30, participants talk about mental health, mental illness, things that stress youth, and how they deal with stress. Individuals struggling with mental health problems are connected with supports.
Second, the Youth Advisory Team (volunteers ages 13 - 18) provides input regarding the program and works on projects to improve the mental health and well-being of youth in Hamilton. The program is based on Youth Net/Reseau Ado which was started by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa in 1994. It was designed to address the findings of the Canadian Youth Mental Health and Illness Survey (CYMHIS, 1993), a cross-Canada telephone survey with 800 youth ages 13 to 18. CYMHIS findings were that youth are experiencing significant levels of distress and are dissatisfied with the existing mental health system. Youth Net Hamilton has been running since 2000 with grant funds and recently became a City of Hamilton Public Health Services program.
Yoomagazine.net (based at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario) is an online, interactive health magazine for young people, parents and professionals. The resource focuses on teaching mental health literacy, facilitating early detection of health and mental health difficulties and promoting help-seeking in young people.
Grip – a magazine for youth written by youth. www.griponlife.ca. (Alberta)
From the (US) Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools, two resources for providing mental health services to children of immigrants and refugees. They are available at the links below or e-mail chhcs@gwu.edu to order one free copy of each.
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Latest page update: made by cindyandrew
, Sep 25 2008, 1:51 PM EDT
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