School Health Toolbox-Mental Health - Recently Updated Pages

June 25, 2009 Teleconference

dmccall — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:18:55 CDT

Mental Health and Schools Community of Practice Teleconference held on June 25, 2009

Minutes

Welcoming Remarks (Michelle Forge/Gloria Wells, Co-Chairs)

Gloria and Michelle welcomed all to the call. Those on the line included practitioners, researchers, Mental Health Commission of Canada representative, Public Health Agency of Canada representative, key NGOs, public health and school district practitioners and policy makers.

Priority issues/knowledge Needs& mapping out next year's CoP activities

Members were referred to the attached synopsis from the May 23/09 face to face gathering in Gatineau and were invite to comment on it.

Doug McCall noted that he would build on this data by circulating a short needs-focused survey to all membership (circulated via email July 8/09). Results from this exercise will be shared via the next CoP call and would be used in helping plan CoP activities for 2009-10.

ACTION: Doug McCall to report back on the survey results during the early fall/09 teleconference of the CoP membership.

3. Anti-StigmaProjectof the Mental Health Commission of Canada

Romie Christie reported on this project noting that youth and health care providers are the first key target audiences for this initiative.

See more at:http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/Pages/AntiStigmaCampaign.aspx

Romie commented on the excellent response to the MHCC’s Request for Interest (RFI) regarding programs that could partner with the Anti-Stigma/Anti-Discrimination Initiative. Two hundred and forty eight submissions were received from across Canada. The RFI was aimed at organizations already operating anti-stigma programs designed for youth and healthcare professionals - the first target groups for the anti-stigma initiative.

Romie further noted that the Commission wants to identify and work with projects currently underway instead of “reinventing the wheel and commented that this RFI process has enabled the Commission to learn about programs that already exist across the country. It will also allow the MHCC to develop new partnerships and potentially to plan for a conference for winter 09/10 and invite those to share the latest research and effective practices.

Several people on the call have been involved with this process and noted their awaiting a reply to their submissions. Romie asked for them to contact her post the call.

Doug McCall asked if there’s a way of sharing the learning from this exercise with the CoP membership (e.g. web meetings). Upon closing this discussion Gloria Wells echoed support for keeping in touch and be mutually supportive of each other’s efforts.

ACTION: Doug McCall and Romie Christie to discuss potential knowledge exchange activities.

4. Updates from the May 20/09 Symposium and Other Recent Initiatives(Michelle Forge/Doug McCall et al)

Recent Initiatives of Interest:

Doug Crossman, Public Health Agency of Canada, reported that PHAC is embarking on a policy process around mental health promotion in tandem with the MHCC work. On this note, a mid-September 2009 invitational meeting is being planned. Highlights on it include:

The focus is on presenting evidence for the idea of "emotional-social healthy living" for children, youth, and families which will include a "settings" lens.
This is part of a process to begin developing the MH promotion component to the Pan-Canadian Healthy Living Strategy (PCHLS).
The audience is by invitation and will include key NGO; academic; and government stakeholders from across Canada.
A proceedings document will be developed as an information resource for stakeholders and form a basis for moving forward with the PCHLS agenda

Doug McCall noted that in speaking with Dr. Sarah Stewart-Brown (UK) he learned of a systematic review being completed on school based mental health promotion and suggested that a web-based presentation on her work and findings might prove helpful to this process and to others working in this area. He offered to follow up on that notion. Gloria Wells added that those involved are on the board of the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (www.intercamhs.org).

ACTION: Doug McCall to contact Dr. Stewart-Brown and her colleague(s) to explore the potential of a web-presentation to share the results of their systematic review.

May 20/09 Symposium Updates/Follow up:

Michelle Forge noted that the report circulated with today’s teleconference agenda did a good job of highlighting some of the issues of relevance to those from this CoP, in particular:

In the area of prevalence & nature of the problem - participants wanted to hear from youth directly about how they see the issues. Can we get data from services like Kids Help Phone to understand youth concerns? How do youth find out where to get help?
Stress – several involved noted hearing from school-based personnel an ‘on the ground’ point of view as it relates to prevalence and what schools are doing
School environment – wanting to know how the school supports and/or exacerbates problems
Comprehensive, integrated approach – how to do this is always a priority topic. In particular effective approaches that balance the needs of promotion, prevention and support for those experiences mental health concerns.
Under the ‘effectiveness’ section – it was noted that the concept of a hub model is growing (e.g. in ON there was a recent announcement). Exploring this model may be helpful/of interest to members.
Community-based models – how best can we support integration of services
More knowledge exchange on instructional interventions is required.
Overall, knowledge exchange is a key priority
One item not noted on the synopsis but should be considered as an area worthy of investigation/sharing is the role of mentoring as a key KE strategy.

Michelle opened it to all for input and further discussion. In general, there appears to be three ‘big ideas’. They are:

A better understanding of the current practice landscape and what works and what doesn’t. Doug noted that the project that CASH et al are involved with will provide a knowledge base on this which will be helpful. The CoP might want to identify and focus on a few priorities (e.g. the role of specific personnel).
Best, promising & evidence-informed practices
Implementation issues

Gloria Wells added that one of the high value activities this CoP can do is to support moving to practice and implementation. The mechanisms for this sharing to take place are often missing – making this CoP helpful and open to other ways to support this KE.

She noted that within the Education sector they are always working towards better supporting the learning needs of young people. In Alberta, the “Setting the Direction for Special Education” initiative looks at providing support for vulnerable students. It’s three key components includes the non-academic needs of students and within this context they’ve identified collaboration as key to progress – service delivery models, knowledge exchange and transfer being critically important in the Education sector. She also noted that a number of other provinces/territories are having similar conversations and that this CoP is ideally positioned to help engage others and support KE/KT.

Doug McCall commented on the social environment related aspect of school-based/linked mental health promotion and noted that there has and continues to be a lot of discussion on connectedness/school climate. While in Europe – both France and Germany reported that the perception of the students weren’t changing in these controlled trials. The nature of connectedness is likely deeper then we tend to currently think of it.

Doug also noted that the area of coordination of programs is a very common issue/challenge to the wide variety of health and social issues being addressed within schools.

In closing Michelle asked if those on today’s call are happy with these directions and foci for the CoP process next year. It was noted that the follow up survey will allow all CoP members, including those not on today’s call to express their support and/or additional issues and needs they may have.

Michelle provided a final summary on the identified knowledge needs noted to date. They are:

Hearing from Youth
understanding the problems more deeply
School environment/school connectedness
How to coordinate/integrate services
Mentoring as a KE strategy
Current practice landscape
Implementation issues
How to involve the Education sector

5. Fall/09 national School Health Conference (Doug McCall)

Doug McCall reported that consideration is being given to hold next year’s annual School Health Conference in mid-November in Halifax, NS in conjunction with a large, substance abuse focused conference. More information is forthcoming on this.

6. Other Items

Gloria Wells reported that the Canadian cohort principal survey results and final report are now on line at:

She invited feedback on how this may be helpful to their work. Gloria can be reached at: www.intercamhs.org/files/Principals%20Survey%20-%20Canada%20(05-14-09).pdf.

7. Next Call Dateand Closing Comments

The next call will be determined in consultation with the co-chairs and the CoP membership. Gloria Wells thanked all for participating and for the richness of the discussion.

Home

dmccall — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:09:15 CDT

Welcome to this wiki-toolbox that serves as a shared work space for professional researchers, non-governmental organizations and local agencies interested in promoting mental health through school-based and school-linked programs.

The purpose of this wiki is to collect the educational, planning, assessment tools related to mental health promotion in schools. We also have a page on related news and events.

This wiki is kept up-to-date by its members and is part of an ongoing knowledge exchange (Community of Practice) that includes:

the joint planning of a symposium and sessions at the annual School Health conference
webinars on selected topics
other activities organized by the lead organizations and individuals who are working together to create a community of practice on school mental health promotion

How to use this wiki

To participate in this on-line wiki-based dialogue, you can use the "Thread" button found on the bottom of each page to make comments on the content on that page. You can also make a comment directly into the Discussion Forum (found on the top navigation bar). You can also edit and add text within the page by clicking on the "Easy Edit" button. Use the commands within that Easy Edit tool to add links to other web sites or documents. You can also add other pages to the wiki by using the "Add Page" button found just below the navigation bar on the left hand side of the page.

You can make the comments and edits and additions anonymously because we have left this wiki wide open to the public. If you want to let people know who made the change or suggestion, use the Join this Wiki found in the right hand side of the top navigation bar to create a little profile for your self. By joining the wiki (no charge, no spam) you can use the tools within the wiki to control the email you receive from this wiki (including none), post messages for other members and choose to "watch" or "unwatch" selected pages within the wiki.

If you want to make a comment or suggestion through email, or would like more information, contact Doug McCall at dmccall@cash-aces.ca

You might be interested in our other SH wikis, including our professional networking web site (http://canadianschoolhealthprofiles.wetpaint.com/), our listing of research and reports (http://schoolhealthbibliography.wetpaint.com/) and our listing of status reports (http://schoolhealthincanada.wetpaint.com/)

Also, we have created several tool-box wikis as part of several other Communities of Practice.

Announcements/News

Please respond to the mini-polls we are doing on hot topics in school mental health. The first poll is on hot topics in SMH and the second is on preferred methods in knowledge exchange.
Our May 2009 SMH Symposium was a great success. Watch for the slides of the presenters on that page in this wiki.

Consultation on Preferred KE Processes

dmccall — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:39:22 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Consultation on Key MH Issues

dmccall — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:37:33 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

News from this Community of Practice

dmccall — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:46:50 CDT

The Canadian Association for School Health has been working with number of organizations in supporting school health (e.g. Canadian School Health NGO Network; School Health Research Network; Canadian School Health Knowledge Network). As part of the networking activity CASH is developing mini-networks on particular issues, including Mental Health. This CoP presents an opportunity to support knowledge exchange, foster coordination and collaboration on a variety of projects of interest to its participants by bring together national non-government organizations, researchers, local agency practitioners (e.g. school district and health authority professionals) and others as interested. There are several opportunities that are being planned to support the exchange of evidence-informed practices, resources and research. Practical activities geared to helping support effective practice include:

School Health Webinars: These are 60 minute, web/phone based seminars presented by a blend of research experts and practitioners. Each session is very topic specific (e.g. Depression & Youth, What School Communities Should Know and Do). More about the webinars program can be seen at: http://www.safehealthyschools.org/webinars/introduction.htm.

Mental Health & Schools Symposium (April 21/08 in Ottawa-Gatineau): this day-long focus on a comprehensive approach to this issue was held in conjunction with the 4th annual National School Health Conference. See below for the various presentations. The final agenda for the day is also attached below.

Bob Heeney - Stomping Out Stigma

Judy Hills - The Psychology Foundation of Canada

Michele Singleton - Mental Health Liaison Nurses in Halton Schools

Louise Moreau - York Region School District and Community Partners with Schools Initiative

Michelle Forge - School-Linked Mental Health Programs

Alexa Bagnell - Models of School-Based Health Services and Evidence-Based Practice

Gloria Wells - Proceedings from Creating Connections in School Mental Health 2006

Yandreski/Jarjoura - Coordinating School Health Programs

Ian Manion - Working Together for Stigma Reduction

Darcy Santor - Facilitating Mental Health Promotion and Early Detection of At Risk Youth

Lynn Damberger - Mental Health in Schools

Wiki toolbox: this virtual filing cabinet presents an opportunity to continue to update/broadcast mental healthand schools related research, policy, program and practice related work underway in Canada and internationally. Contributions to this wiki by all interested is encouraged.

The Community of Practice meets via teleconference approximately 4 times per year. Minutes and items of interested for each of these calls are attached below. For more information on this community of practice, contact Cindy Andrew at candrew@cash-aces.ca.

Announcements/News

Please respond to the mini-polls we are doing on hot topics in school mental health. The first poll is on hot topics in SMH and the second is on preferred methods in knowledge exchange.
Our May 2009 SMH Symposium was a great success. Watch for the slides of the presenters on that page in this wiki.

CoP Meeting/Symposium May 20, 2009

dmccall — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:02:10 CDT

This page will contain the poresentations and related materials from the MH CoP symposium held at the Holiday Inn in Gatineau QC on May 20, 2009.

Please come back to review those slides and other materials that will be posted soon.

Nov 26, 2008 Teleconference

dmccall — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:50:23 CDT

The next call of the Community of Practice has been confirmed for Nov. 26, 2008 from 10-11:00 a.m. PT (please adjust per your time zone).
An agenda package will be sent to all members and posted on this link a week before then.

New members to the CoP are welcomed. Please contact Cindy Andrew at candrew@cash-aces.ca.

June 23, 2008 Teleconference

dmccall — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:49:43 CDT

The notes from this teleconference were sent to all of those on the list of participants of this informal and growing network. They're also attached below. If you'd like to know more about this CoP, contact Cindy Andrew at candrew@cash-aces.ca.

Jan 27, 2009 Teleconference

dmccall — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:49:10 CDT

This call of the CoP on Mental Health and Schools took place. To see the notes from this call scroll down to view the attachements - and select the 'minutes' file. Our next call is confirmed for April 1/09 at 10 a.m. PT. Those interested in joining this informal network are encouraged to contact Cindy Andrew at candrew@cash-aces.ca. An update from the Dalhousie University based Sun Life Chair in Mental Health (Dr. Stan Kutcher, Chair) is also attached below.

Recent news, upcoming events

cindyandrew — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:20:07 CDT

This page lists upcoming and recent events relating to mental health, mental illness and schools.

If you would like to change this page or other pages in this wiki by adding additional references and links, you will need to join this wiki (no charge, no spam) To do so, click on the "Join this Wiki" button from the Home Page or contact info@cash-aces.caYou don't need to join the wiki if you want to comment on materials listed or linked here or to ask a question of the members of this wiki-community, we invite you to do so by selecting the Discussion Forum in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of these pages.

Upcoming Events:

Items of Interest:

The Calgary-based Whole School Mental Health Promotion has a series of reports and papers of interest, including:

full project process report: “The Whole School Mental Health Promotion Pilot Project : 2004 – 2008 : Process Report “ Principal author - K Dutton , WSMHP Facilitator Contributing Author - Catherine Morrison, Calgary Region Network Manager Both authors : Southern Alberta Child & Youth Health Network, Alberta Health Services, Canada Available from: http://www.sacyhn.ca/media/pdf/wsmhppp_process_report.pdf

The first published article:“Learning from Turbulent, Real-World Practice: Insights from a Whole-School Mental Health Promotion Project” Darlene Omstead1, Claudia Canales1, Rosemary Perry1, Ken Dutton2, Catherine Morrison2 & Penelope Hawe1 In: ‘Advances in School Mental Health Promotion’, Vol 2, (2) - April 2009 © The Clifford Beers Foundation & University of Maryland 1Population Health Intervention Research Centre, University of Calgary, Canada 2Southern Alberta Child and Youth Health Network, Alberta Health Services, Canada Available from: http://www.schoolmentalhealth.co.uk/adv_2009.htm

The evaluation report: “Whole School Mental Health Promotion Pilot Project Evaluation Report January 2009.” Rosemary Perry, Anita Blackstaffe, Gavin McCormack, Alberto Nettel-Aguirre & Penelope Hawe. All authors from Population Health Intervention Research Centre, University of Calgary, Canada Available from: http://www.sacyhn.ca/media/pdf/wsmhpp_evaluation_report.pdf

Second article (presently pending publication decision with ‘Journal of School Health’) “Surfacing how existing curriculum supports children's mental health: Grades K-9” Principal author - K Dutton , WSMHP Facilitator Contributing Author - Catherine Morrison, Calgary Region Network Manager Both authors : Southern Alberta Child & Youth Health Network, Alberta Health Services, Canada Available from: (publisher’s decision pending)

NEW from Canadian Institutes for Health information (March 3/09) Source: http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=media_2009_03_03_e

Improving the Health of Canadians: Exploring Positive Mental Health

Positive or good mental health is more than just the absence of a mental illness. In fact, according to a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), people reporting higher levels of positive mental health also report better physical health and fewer days of reduced activity. The report examines five aspects of positive mental health, including:

Life enjoyment;
Coping ability;
Emotional well-being;
Spiritual values and well-being; and
Social well-being and connectedness.

This is the first report of its kind in Canada to offer a comprehensive look at the role positive mental health plays in physical health, including what factors are associated with high levels of positive mental health. This report is the final in a series of three reports on mental health developed by the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI), a department of CIHI, also looks at strategies and opportunities to promote positive mental health.

Mental Health Common Messages (http://www.ahln.ca/mhcommonmessages.cfm): The Alberta Healthy Living Network (AHLN) has developed these new resources that link common messages about mental health with common messages about active living, healthy eating and tobacco use. These mental health common messages are intended for use by practitioners working in the areas of health promotion and chronic disease prevention.

Teenmentalhealth.org is dedicated to helping improve the mental health of youth by the effective translation and transfer of scientific knowledge. Teenmentalhealth.org is developed by Dr. Stan Kutcher and the Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health, a partnership between Sun Life Financial, Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre. The site includes information for parents/care givers, young people, mental health professions, multi-media clips and more.

From: www.schoolmentalhealth.co.uk (Vol 2 Issue 1):
An Examination of Childhood Anxiety, Depression and Self-Esteem across Socioeconomic Groups: A Comparison Study between High and Low Socioeconomic Status School Communities
Lara Farrell, Anouk Sijbenga and Paula Barrett, pps 5-19 ABSTRACT: Anxiety and depression occur at alarmingly high rates in children and young people; hence the recent research and policy focus on school-based mental health promotion and prevention interventions. Currently, little is known about the level of risk between socio-economic school communities. While disadvantaged socio-economic status (SES) has long been identified as a particular risk factor for mental health problems, level of risk for anxiety and depression in different SES school communities has not been explored. This study explores the relationship between SES and anxiety and depression, as well as the protective factor self-esteem in children and young people. The results indicated that children in the low SES schools scored significantly higher on depression and lower on self-esteem than children in the high SES schools. Interestingly, and contrary to the hypotheses, children in the high SES school reported significantly higher anxiety than those in lower SES schools. The outcome of this research suggests that children from low SES schools may have a higher level of risk for depression with lower psychological protective factors, such as self-esteem, but this result was not evident for anxiety. Research exploring the risk for mental health disorders, as a function of SES school community, is important in terms of prevention programming.

From the US Center for Health and Health Care in Schools:
- The provision of mental health services in school-based centers is examined in the recent article, Schools Expand Mental Health Care from the January issue of Monitor on Psychology
- The Center's co-director, Olga Acosta Price, PhD, contributed to a recently released publication from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network titled Traumatic Grief in Military Children - Info for Educators. This booklet describes ways educators can provide support to children of military families who have experienced loss. A similar piece titled Traumatic Grief in Military Children - Info for Medical Providers is also available on our website.

The Mental Health Commission has just released an RFP for School-based Mental Health and Addictions Services, looking for a qualified individual or team to conduct a national and international assessment of the current state of mental health and addictions (MHA) services delivery in schools, ranging from prevention/promotion initiatives to integrated treatment systems. The proposal is due on January 30, 2009. For more information, go to http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/Jobs/RFP_Schoolbased%20MHA%20Services_Dec19.pdf. More information on the Mental Health Commission's work related to children and youth, see http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/Pages/ChildandYouth.aspx
A list of evidence-based programs were identified as part of the Center for School Mental Health’s National Survey of Expanded School Mental Health Programs (2007). 152 ESMH Programs from across the county responded to the survey. Only evidence-based programs that received at least one recognition on one of ten evidence-based program registries (see Center for School Mental Health Summary of Evidence Based Program Registries, 2008) were included in the table. The table was developed by Kerri Stiegler, B.A. and Nancy Lever, Ph.D., Center for School Mental Health, June 2008. The table is available online, www.schoolmentalhealth.org and http://csmh.umaryland.edu.
The Globe and Mail is doing another series on mental health. See: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/breakdown

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning's research brief, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Student Benefits: Implications for the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Core Elements provides an overview of their recent analysis of more than 700 research studies. According to the brief, school, family, and community programming designed to promote social and emotional learning in children lead to an overall improvement of 23% in students' social and emotional skills and an 11 percentile point gain in achievement test scores. The Canadian School Health Knowledge Network has a series of webinars, several related to SEL. For more see: http://www.safehealthyschools.org/webinars/schedule.htm.

Nine NY state agencies jointly develop plan for broad reform of public services for children (Oct/08) Heads of nine child-serving agencies have jointly submitted to the governor and legislature New York's first Children's Plan to improve the social and emotional well being of New York's children and their families. Key recommendations of the collaborative plan include: a) A focused attention to behavioral issues and emotional disturbance in settings such as pediatric offices, child care and schools, with mental health treatment in a back-up and support role; a shift toward more effective and less expensive early intervention and evidence-based preventive approaches, leading to a reduction in institutional costs; and the collaborative use of family-centered and parent-driven approaches. http://www.omh.state.ny.us/omhweb/News/pr_childrens_plan.html.

The BC based Alcohol and Drug Education Service has published their fall newsletters for parents and professionals (the latter addresses the issue of stress as a factor in substance abuse). See attached files below.

The ABC's of Mental Health is a web-based resource for teachers of grades SK to 8.See: http://www.hincksdellcrest.org/teacher-resource-project.html (based on Brock University et al related work: www.brocku.ca/teacherresource/ABC/).

Readers may be interested in a very new guidance publication from the UK (March 2008) (NICE Public Health Guidance 12: Promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing in primary education). This major national piece of work also commissioned 3 substantive reviews of the literature on school-based work on mental health promotion, two of which are cited directly below, the third covering anti bullying and violence can also be accessed via the same website as the NICE guidelines.

The guideline
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) (2008) NICE Public Health Guidance 12: Promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing in primary education. NICE : London. [Retrievable July 2008 from : http://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/PH12 ]
Two of the 3 reviews
Adi, Y., Kiloran, A., Janmohamed, K. and Stewart-Brown, S. (2007) Systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to promote mental wellbeing in primary schools. Report 1: Universal approaches which do not focus on violence or bullying. University of Warwick- a NICE National Collaborating Centre. [Retrievable July 2008 from : http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/MentalWellbeingWarwickUniReview.pdf ]
Shucksmith, J., Summerbell, C., Jones, S. and Whittaker, V. (2007) Mental wellbeing of children in primary education (targeted/indicated activities) (Review 2). University of Teesside - a NICE National Collaborating Centre. [Retrievable July 2008 from : http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/MentalWellbeingTeesideReview.pdf ]

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (ON) recently launched its Mental Health and Addiction 101 tutorials - a series of 14 free web tutorials housed on CAMH.net that feature topics such as depression, addiction, older adults, stages of change and stigma. Tutorials are free and open to all interested. See: www.camh.net (http://www.camh.net/mha101/).

Globe & Mail Series on Mental Health
The series on mental health being published by the Globe & Mail can be found at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/breakdown

Symposium on Mental Health Stigma
The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) presented a joint symposium and roundtable on "Stigma in Mental Health and Addiction" yesterday (June 3, 2008). About 100 people representing many areas of the mental health field - from stakeholders and service providers to scientists and clinicians - attended the conference at the University of Calgary. The conference featured four of the world’s leading experts on stigma research; Dr. Pat Corrigan (U.S.), Dr. Graham Thornicroft (U.K.), Dr. Otto Wahl (U.S.) and Dr. Bruce Link (U.S.). Those in attendance also heard from Order of Canada recipient Dr. Austin Mardon (CDN) about his personal journey with schizophrenia. The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by Commission Chair, Michael Kirby. The talks centered on developing a plan to move forward with expanding stigma research capacity and evaluation in Canada. More than 20 people representing consumers, stakeholders, advocates, scientists, policy makers and MHCC Board members participated in the valuable discussions. A video presentation of the speakers and a report from the roundtable discussions will be available for viewing on a joint website produced for the conference by the Commission and the HBI, in about two weeks. You can access the website by clicking on this link: www.mentalhealthstigma.ca.

New Brunswickers will be involved in developing a provincial mental health strategy during consultations to be held around the province. Read more at: http://www.gnb.ca/cnb/news/he/2008e0750he.htm. Prior to beginning an extensive consultation, an issues and options paper will be developed based on an analysis of existing documentation and input from key stakeholders. Among the documents to be reviewed will be Out of the Shadows at Last, a report on mental illness released last year, written by Senator Michael Kirby, and Connecting the Dots, a report on youth-at-risk and youth with complex needs, released this year. To see that report go to: http://www.gnb.ca/Ombudsman.
Ministry of Children and Family Development has released a series of mental health resources for youth available online. They include: What are Child and Youth Mental Health Services, Dealing with Depression: Antidepressant Skills for Teens, Dual Diagnosis: A Guide for Families andWhat to Expect from your Family Physician in Children’s Mental Health. Also new: Child and Youth Mental Health Plan for B.C. - Progress Report 2008 (pdf). Visit http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/mental_health/publications.htm for a complete listing.

The eBulletin for May/June 2008 (Vol. 9(3)) entitled "Highlights from the 2007 OSDUHS Mental Health and Well-Being Report" is now available at:
http://www.camh.net/Research/Areas_of_research/Population_Life_Course_Studies/eBulletins/research_population_ebulletins.html

Events
Alberta Mental Health Research Showcase and pre-conference workshop on School-based Mental Health: see http://www.buksa.com/showcase/program.aspx#nov18. Wednesday, November 19 to Friday, November 21, 2008 in Banff, Alberta

Expanding Our Horizons: Moving Mental Health and Wellness Promotion into the Mainstream: The Clifford Beers Foundation working in conjunction with The Mental Health Commission of Canada is pleased to announce an important international conference on the promotion of mental health and wellness, which will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, March 4th - 6th 2009. For more see: http://www.toronto.cliffordbeersfoundation.co.uk/speakers.htm.

- New Resources:

The New Mentality (Youth Engagement Project) is a 24-month youth-driven pilot project, co-led by Children’s Mental Health Ontario and the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO. Funding has just been secured (winter/08) to fund a comprehensive, arms-length investigation. For more see: www.kidsmentalhealth.ca.

Ready... Set... Engage! Building Effective Youth/Adult Partnerships for a Stronger Child and Youth Mental Health System: (Pereira, N. Toronto, ON, Canada: Children's Mental Health Ontario (November, 2007)) This report represents the First Phase of The New Mentality. Its findings offer solid insight into what the term 'Youth Engagement' (YE) actually means and how it can be put into practice. The report provides:
- definitions of YE and a review of the YE literature
- illustrations of how YE is being applied in child and youth mental health agencies across the province
- examples of how to: build youth-adult partnerships; support youth as decision makers; and identify roles that youth can assume within organizations.

Youth-Adult Engagement Qualitative Report Card (Youth Infusion): this report card can be accessed online at: www.youthinfusion.com/Documents/qualitative%20report%20card%20self%20assessment%20set.pdf

Click here to check out the new journal Advances in School Mental Health Promotion. From the Oct 08 issue -
From the Advances in School Mental Health Promotion (Volume 1, Issue 4 of the Journal (October 2008)) http://www.schoolmentalhealth.co.uk: “Implementing multi- level programmes and approaches that address student well- being and connectedness: factoring in the needs of the schools”. Nola Firth, Helen Butler, Sarah Drew, Andrea Krelle, Jeanie Sheffield, George Patton, Michelle Tollit, Lyndal Bond and the beyondblue project management team pps 14- 24. ABSTRACT: Implementation of effective school- level mental health promotion initiatives is challenging. This paper presents findings from the beyondblue schools research initiative, a cluster randomised trial which aimed to promote student mental health. For more on Beyondblue see: http://www.beyondblue.org.

From the School Mental Health Project,theCenter for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA is making its new publication available online. To dowload, click: Mental Health in School & School Improvement: Current Status, Concerns, and New Directions

From the School of Public Health & Health Services, George Washington University:

Psychotropic Drugs and Children: A 2007 Update (Dec. 2007) Recent increases in the use of psychotropic medications by children and adolescents, limited information on the benefits of these therapies for children, and concerns about the adverse consequences of certain drugs have prompted a growing disquiet. The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools has revised its fact sheet summarizing recent research and suggesting implications for school-based health care. Download the fact sheet http://www.healthinschools.org/News-Room/Fact-Sheets/Psychotropic.aspx

From the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health (US) New Youth Participation handbook and quiz:

Youth Engagement: Is your organization supporting meaningful youth participation in collaborative team planning? http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/PDF/pbAMPQuizBrochure.pdf

Best practices for increasing meaningful youth participation in collaborative team planning http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/PDF/pbAMPYouthParticipation.pdf

From the US Department of Health & Human Services: Promotion and Prevention in Mental Health: Strengthening Parenting and Enhancing Child Resilience (2007. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/svp%2d0186

Coordinated School Mental Health Programs

dmccall — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:36:30 CST

This page lists resources that promote the coordination of policies, programs and services in school-based and school-linked promotion of mental health that includes five elments of a coordinated approach; policy, instruction, health services, social support and physical environment.

Research and experience show that when multiple policies, programs and services are delivered in a coordinated way to change the entire ethos/social climate of the school and involve parents and the community, there will be positive impacts on student health, learning and social development. A coordinated, multiple-component strategy would include programs such as classroom instruction to reduce stigma, youth engagement activties, parent involvement, youth mental health services delivered in or near the school, revision of school policies on student disciplne and other types of interventions.

Here are some reports, examples and studies of this coordinated program/multi-component strategy.

Research & Reports on the Topic

The Gatehouse Project (http://www.rch.org.au/gatehouseproject/) is an Australian-based research project aimed at promoting emotional well-being of young people in schools. Its approach includes: links health and education; sits within existing health and education policy frameworks; builds on the work schools are already doing; provides a strong, accessible framework and process which can meet the needs of individual school communities; and has measurable outcomes. It has documented the impact of the school environment on the health and well-being of young people, and the scope of schools to provide a setting that meets the emotional needs of young people. The Project has contributed to a repositioning of health promotion from a welfare concern to a whole school concern. The links between student perceptions of school and health outcomes has demonstrated the interconnectedness of welfare, curriculum and school organizational structures.
Ontario Centre of Excellence for Children and Mental Health. School-Based Interventions To Reduce The Stigma Associated With Mental Health Difficulties: An Ongoing Systematic Review: The objective of this work is to systematically review the empirical evidence describing the characteristics and impact of school-based interventions to reduce the stigma associated with mental health difficulties. To be considered relevant, interventions must have been designed for and/or implemented with children and youth (18 years of age and under).
The UCLA Centre on Schools and Mental Health published a set of better practice guidelines on coordinated MH programs in the school setting. It is attached to this web page. (Go to the bottom of this page)

Examples of Comprehensive, Coordinated Programs and Approaches on the Topic (If Applicable)

The Halton-Public Health Unit has several different programs that are delivered in cooperation with their local school board. One of these programs is the Talking about Mental Health Initiaitve
MindMatters (http://cms.curriculum.edu.au/mindmatters/) is a resource and professional development program to support Australian secondary schools in promoting and protecting the social and emotional wellbeing of members of school communities.
The Mental Health Capacity Building in Schools initiative, funded by Alberta Health and Wellness and led by the Alberta Mental Health Board (AMHB), is a partnership involving several organizations, including Alberta Education, Alberta Children’s Services, AADAC, health regions, school divisions, and other community agencies ( http://www.amhb.ab.ca/news/AMHBNews/Press%20Releases/Connecting%20for%20Kids%20Conference.pdf)

Policy Guidelines/Tools

Educational Programs or Guides

Planning Guides or Manuals

Assessment/Evaluation Tools or Criteria

Training Resources (Conferences, Online Training, Training Materials)

Other Web Resources (including other wikis)

Centre for Mental Health in Schools http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu
for information about the Center or about ENEWS, contact Center Coordinator Perry Nelson or Center Co-Directors Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor at: UCLA School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools
Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563 Phone (310) 825-3634; Toll Free (866) 846-4843; Fax (310) 206-8716
email: smhp@ucla.edu

The recommended film: “Extra Ordinary People” looks at mental health and stigma.
Copies can be ordered by contacting distribution@vtape.org.

www.whitbymentalhealthcentre.ca The research report referred to today and other TAMI documents (click on Community)

TAMI
http://www.halton.ca/health/services/mentalhealth/youth_net_TAMI.htm

Talking about Mental Illness: A Guide for Developing and Awareness for Youth
http://www.camh.net/education/Resources_teachers_schools/TAMI/tami_teachers_part1.pdf

Youth and Mental Illness – Canadian Psychiatric Association
http://publications.cpa-apc.org/browse/documents/20

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
http://www.camh.net

High school: on the frontline of mental health – Canadian Health Network
http://www.canadian-health-network.ca/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1101055629164&pagename=CHN-RCS%2FCHNResource%2FCHNResourcePageTemplate&c=CHNResource&lang=En

How does youth participation work to improve the health of youth? – Canadian Health Network
http://www.canadian-health-network.ca/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1056728891284&pagename=CHN-RCS%2FCHNResource%2FCHNResourcePageTemplate&c=CHNResource&lang=En

Canadian Mental Health Association
http://www.cmha.ca

Evidence-based mental health promotion resource, (VicHealth, 2006) recognizes the broader determinants that contribute to health. It includes schools as a key setting and in its referenced programs reiterates the need for supportive positive social environments. It includes an overview of the “Schools as Core Social Centres Initiative” which served to strengthen the link between student well being and learning outcomes. The project was recognized as a 2006 National Awarded Project for Quality Schooling.

Butler, H., Bond L., Drew, S., Krelle, A., Seal, I. 2005. Doing It Differently: Improving Young People's Engagement With School. Melbourne: Brotherhood of St Laurence.
Download pdf version

The Center for Mental Health in Schools (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/) based at UCLA is an excellent source for background information, research and evidence-based practices related to mental health in schools. Its About Mental Health in Schools Introductory Packet provides an overview of what the term "Mental Health in Schools" means and includes a subset of the Center's resources and documents. Click here to download the entire packet.

Their Annotated "lists" of Empirically Supported/Evidence Based Interventions for School-aged Children and Adolescents Information Sheet” provides a list of lists of empirically supported/evidence based interventions for school aged children and adolescents. Concise explanations of what each list covers, how it was developed, what it contains, and how to access it are included.

The Gateway to a World of Resources for Enhancing MH in Schools is a links "map" that provides quick access to relevant resources on the internet.

Resource Aid Packet on Addressing Barriers to Learning: A Set of Surveys to Map What a School Has and What It Needs includes a set of surveys for 6 program areas and related system needs that constitute a comprehensive, multifaceted, and integrated approach to address barriers and thus enable learning. The areas are (1) classroom-focused enabling, (2) crisis assistance and prevention, (3) support for transitions, (4) home involvement in schooling, (5) student and family assistance programs and services, and (6) community outreach for involvement and support (including volunteers).

Two recent briefs from the Center are noteworthy: "Youth Risk Taking Behavior: The Role of Schools." http ://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/policyissues/risktaking.pdf “The Current Status of Mental Health in Schools: A Policy and Practice Analysis” http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/currentstatusmh/currentstatus.pdf

The Opportunity of Adolescence: The Health Sector Contribution (Health Canada, 2000) is an evidence-based informational resource that identifies opportunities for growth where the health sector could, on its own and in collaboration with other sectors contribute to healthy adolescent development, including their mental health. The paper focuses on healthy adolescent development and the need to invest in Canada's youth and work directly with young people to improve their health.

Whole School Approaches to Mental Health

KidsMatter (http://www.apapdc.edu.au/kidsmatter/) is a primary school mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative developed in collaboration with the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, beyondblue: the national depression initiative, the Australian Psychological Society, the Australian Principals Associations Professional Development Council (APAPDC) and supported by the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund. The KidsMatter initiative aims to:

Improve the mental health and well-being of primary school students

Reduce mental health problems among students (eg., anxiety, depression and behavioural problems)

Achieve greater support and assistance for students at risk or experiencing mental health problems.

The Gatehouse Project (http://www.rch.org.au/gatehouseproject/) is an Australian-based research project aimed at promoting emotional well-being of young people in schools. Its approach includes: links health and education; sits within existing health and education policy frameworks; builds on the work schools are already doing; provides a strong, accessible framework and process which can meet the needs of individual school communities; and has measurable outcomes. It has documented the impact of the school environment on the health and well-being of young people, and the scope of schools to provide a setting that meets the emotional needs of young people. The Project has contributed to a repositioning of health promotion from a welfare concern to a whole school concern. The links between student perceptions of school and health outcomes has demonstrated the interconnectedness of welfare, curriculum and school organizational structures.

The public health significance of this work has been widely recognized, and is being continued through the Adolescent Health and Social Environments Program (http://www.rch.org.au/ahsep. A Canadian adaptation of this project is CORE (Creating Opportunities for Resiliency and Engagement project) based in Calgary. This involves the original Gatehouse investigators alongside Canadian collaborators and seeks to improve, strengthen and re-test the intervention in various ways: first, by focusing on teachers and teacher well being as the starting point; second, by placing greater emphasis on social networks and social inclusion; and third, by targeting depression more vigorously as the primary health outcome.

(For more information on one pilot project within this research program see the related webinar posted at www.safehealthyschools.org.)

This Canadian version is being piloted and facilitated through a collaboration between Southern Alberta Child and Youth Network, Calgary Health Region and Calgary Board of Education; it is being formally evaluated through the University of Calgary under the leadership of Dr. Penny Hawe at the Population Health Intervention Research Centre. Already her team has shown substantial reductions in smoking, alcohol and marijuana use among high school students with the new approach. Dr Hawe is getting community support to help raise the $8m needed for a trial in 60 schools starting in 2008. See www.ucalgary.ca/phirc. An overview of the Gatehouse Project and its featured publications are provided as appendix I.

To help schools identify issues of concern, priorities and feasible starting places, the Gatehouse Project provided each school with: team guidelines to develop an action plan. These guidelines include instruments and processes with to audit current practice and identify gaps under each of the three theme areas and ii) school profiles compiled from student responses to questions in the Gatehouse Project Adolescent Health Survey, which asked about students' perceptions of the school environment.

Mental Health Commission of Canada

cindyandrew — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:41:21 CST

The Mental Health Commission of Canada's Child and Youth Advisory Committee is now working on projects to:

Develop a Canadian vision for child and youth mental health;
Support the delivery of evidence-based mental health services for children and youth within the school setting;
Make the child and youth segment a central part of the national anti-stigma campaign;
Identify, understand and promote effective strategies to address and defeat self-stigma experienced by children and youth;
Develop an index of current local, national and international knowledge exchange initiatives related to child and youth mental health and establish a Canadian consortium for knowledge exchange in child and youth mental health;
Systematically compile, review, and synthesize material for the knowledge exchange related to child and youth mental health to meet the needs of various end users;
Establish a youth reference group for the Mental Health Commission of Canada

Pasted from < http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/Pages/ChildandYouth.aspx >.

CASH recently participated in a National Mental Health Think Tank November 4/o8 in Calgary AB. "Toward Flourishing for All … Mental Health Promotion and Mental Illness Prevention Policy Background Paper" (K. GermAnn and P. Ardiles, 2008) is an excellent background paper drafted to serve as a basis for discussion during the consultation. The paper and outcomes from this consultation will be posted here when available.

Consideration of System/Organization Characteristics

lgrypstr — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:43:47 CDT

This page lists resources and examples of how system, organizational and professional characteristics (such as loosely-coupled control, open to external influences and bureaucratic structures) can be considered strategically when implementing school mental health programs.

If you would like to change this page or other pages in this wiki by adding additional references and links, you will need to join this wiki (no charge, no spam) To do so, click on the "Join this Wiki" button from the Home Page or contact info@cash-aces.caYou don't need to join the wiki if you want to comment on materials listed or linked here or to ask a question of the members of this wiki-community, we invite you to do so by selecting the Discussion Forum in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of these pages.

Recently a long-time school administrator (now retired and doing consultation work) pointed out to me that the health sector uses very different language (i.e. mental illness, signs, symptoms, prevention, treatment, disorders, etc.) than the education sector (i.e. behaviours, management, etc.) for mental health and illness. Not long after, a web site was brought to my attention by a community partner: http://www.brocku.ca/teacherresource/ABC/. The site uses education language to help teachers to promote mental health and get help for students who are experiencing mental health problems.

Sept 22, 2008 CoP Teleconference

cindyandrew — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:51:01 CDT

The agenda, a power point presentation on the BC integrated provincial health literacy strategy, minutes and other items of interest from this call are attached below.

For more information on this call or the CoP in general please contact Cindy Andrew at candrew@cash-aces.ca.

School-based/linked Mental Health Services

cindyandrew — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:51:44 CDT

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.

SH Toolbox Page Template

dmccall — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:20:42 CDT

This is the template that we use in our School Health Toolbox wikis. Please use this as a guide when you are adding content to those wikis. Thank you.

Template Guidelines

1. Introduce the page in one sentence stating clearly what is being covered on the page. Use 7 point Arial, blue, italics font for this introduction.

2. Other explanatory text to guide people within the wiki should be done in 10 point Arial , italics font.

3. All other text within the wiki should be in 10 point arial font in "auto" colour.

4. Summarize the topic (eg element of school health promotion, good practice or program, research topic etc) in one or two paragraphs at the top of the page. Describe how this topic relates to the overall subject of the wiki as well as to school health promotion, if this can be done in a sentence or two. (Note: In most cases, the staff and volunteers monitoring this wiki will be doing or helping you with this task as they regularly edit the pages.)

5. Create these sub-sections within the page so that contributors can clearly see where to add their information. These sub-sections are;

Research & Reports on the Topic

Examples of Comprehensive, Coordinated Programs and Approaches on the Topic (If Applicable)

Policy Guidelines/Tools

Educational Programs or Guides

Planning Guides or Manuals

Assessment/Evaluation Tools or Criteria

Training Resources (Conferences, Online Training, Training Materials)

Other Web Resources (including other wikis)

6. Our staff and volunteers will be "tagging" the various pages in this wiki using key words so that they can be found easily by doing a search within this wiki. (See upper left hand side of all pages). However, if you want to tag the pages that you create, please use our list of topics found as an attachment to this page.

About this wiki

dmccall — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:14:28 CDT

This wiki has been created to support a Canadian "community of practice" that is devoted to sharing links to good resources in school health promotion related to mental health. The wiki is maintained by the Canadian Association for School Health as part of its role in facilitating the development of the Canadian School Health Knowledge Network.

This wiki is focused on identifying tools (educational, planning, assessment/evaluation and policy tools) related to this aspect of the health, learning and development of children and a comprehensive and coordinated school-communty approach.

We invite vistors to this wiki to contribute by joining the wiki, which will enable you to add, move and edit pages, add links to other web sites and documents, make comments on the various pages or the overall wiki in the Discussion Forum at by adding a "thread" by selecting that option at the bottom of each page , upload documents as attachments and create an organizational and professional profile about your work with schools.

To join this wiki, simply select that choice on the tool bar at the top of the page. Depending on the openess of each wiki, you will either automatically be added to the wiki, or one of our staff or volunteers will respond to your request as soon as possible

To edit a page, simply use the "easy edit" button at the top of each page. This choice will appear if the wiki is wide open to everyone anonymously. This wiki requires that you join the wiki-community in order to more than add comments.

To add a page, use the choice found on the left hand side of each page. When you make that selection, your new page will be created as a sub-page of the one you are viewing at that time. There are procedures for you to move the pages around within the wiki as well.

We ask that you use our Toolbox Page Template as a guide when adding new pages. This guide creates "slots" for contributors to add links abd other references in consistent ways throughout the wiki.

Building System, Agency, School & Professional Capacity

cindyandrew — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:25:54 CDT

This page lists planning, assessment and educational resources related to building system, agency and professional capacity to promote mental health through schools. These different agency or organizational capacities can be built in eight areas:

1. Coordinated policy and leadership

2. Formal and informal mechanisms for cooperation/coordination

3. Staffing & infrastructure to support cooperation

4. Ongoing workforce development

5. Strategic management of issues and trends

6. Organized knowledge transfer & exchange

7. Regular monitoring and reporting

8. Explicit planning for sustainability

The Whole School Mental Health Promotion Pilot Project in Calgary has recently been working on a Sustainability Framework as it moves to the end of its externally facilitated phase (see attachment at the bottom of the page).
Although referencing the project, the content is generic and could be applied to any 'project approach' in almost any interest area in schools. This is very much a 'work in progress' but is attached here for the information of anyone interested. We would be very interested to hear from anyone who may have views on this, and /or suggestions for improving the document. [ ken.dutton@calgaryhealthregion.ca ]

UCLA Center on Mental Health and Schools has established a Practitioner Listserv . – see http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/practitioner.htm

If you would like to change this page or other pages in this wiki by adding additional references and links, you will need to join this wiki (no charge, no spam) To do so, click on the "Join this Wiki" button from the Home Page or contact info@cash-aces.caYou don't need to join the wiki if you want to comment on materials listed or linked here or to ask a question of the members of this wiki-community, we invite you to do so by selecting the Discussion Forum in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of these pages.

Prevalence, nature of this health problem

cindyandrew — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:33:53 CST

This page lists resources and links that explain how mental health problems and mental illness can develop among young people.

According to a recent systematic review related to barriers and facilitators of the health of young people “mental health is increasingly being recognized as fundamental to concepts of health and there is a general shift away from viewing ‘mental health’ as ‘mental illness’, to thinking about mental health as also encapsulating the notion of ‘positive mental health’ or ‘mental well-being’.

Good mental health does not only involve the absence of mental illness but can be seen as a resource for reaching ones’ full potential.[1] The same review reiterates that “factors which lead young people to take multiple health risks are likely to be intertwined with general risk factors for mental health and/or barriers to positive mental health and well-being”.

Impact of the School on Mental Health

Research has demonstrated that a sense of connectedness or attachment to school is a protective factor for young people. There is an increasing awareness that schools can engage in deliberate strategies to build a secure and supportive school environment, and to promote health enhancing attitudes and behaviours. In addition, there is awareness that mental health problems in students are associated with higher rates of truancy, suspension, exclusion, school alienation, and lower educational achievement. Child and adolescent mental health problems are frequently first identified at school. Parents with concerns about their children are likely to consult teachers and other student services as their first step in seeking help.

Educators, in cooperation with parents, health professionals and the community can play a significant role in teaching the knowledge and skills necessary for good mental health, in providing a safe, supportive environment with healthy role models and in connecting to services and programs in the community. School is also an area where we can most effectively identify children and youth who may have (or may be at risk for) mental health difficulties.

A recent study using data from the Gatehouse Project (Australia) provides further support for prevention strategies in schools that move beyond health education to promoting positive social environments. See Promoting Social Inclusion in Schools: A Group-Randomized Trial of Effects on Student Health Risk Behavior and Well-Being.

In another recent systematic review (Sarah Stewart-Brown et al) done for the Health Evidence Network of the World Health Organization, “a reviews of programmes that promoted mental health in schools (including preventing violence and aggression) show these programmes to be among the most effective ones in promoting health. Of these programmes, the ones that were most effective were of long duration and high intensity, and involved the whole school.”[2]

Voices for Children (Canada) promotes the well-being of children and youth in Ontario by disseminating information to influence policy, practice and awareness. Relevant reports cited there include: The Critical Role of School Culture in Student Success (DeWit et al, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, December 2003), and Resilience - giving children the skills to bounce back (Kordich Hall and Pearson, November, 2003).

The (ON) Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health ( www.onthepoint.ca) has completed the first comprehensive systematic review of school-based interventions to reduce stigma relating to mental health difficulties among children and youth. The Centre is developing tools and resources from the review to stimulate research, inform program development and initiate policy discussions. Coming soon: Mental Health Awareness Curriculum for the Classroom and Beyond. In addition, the Centre’s knowledge exchange activities of interest include systematic reviews annotated bibliography related to children and mental health.

Sticks and Stones: Breaking the stigma of child and youth mental health difficulties through our schools by Peter Levesque, Knowledge Exchange Specialist, and Dr. Howard Schachter, Scientist, Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health, Ottawa (September 2006).

[1] Shepherd J et al. Barriers to, and facilitators of, the health of young people: a systematic review of evidence on young people's views and on interventions in mental health, physical activity and healthy eating - Vol. 2: complete report. London, Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre, 2002 http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=257

[2] Sarah Stewart-Brown, What is the evidence on school health promotion in improving health or preventing disease and, specifically, what is the effectiveness of the health promoting schools approach?, March, 2006 available online at: http://www.euro.who.int/HEN

The US Centers for Disease Control has just released The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across the Lifespan, which summarizes research on childhood stress and future adult health and well-being. Research focuses on the effects of child abuse, neglect and repeated exposure to intimate partner violence. Included in the publication is information on how violence prevention practitioners can incorporate information on childhood stress in to their work.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/effects_of_childhood_stress.htm

Comprehensive Approaches to School Mental Health

cindyandrew — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:34:46 CST

This page lists resources that explain how comprehenive approaches to promoting mental health and alleviating mental illness through schools can be done. This includes linking substance abuse to other issues such as substance abuse, crime, youth development, stigma, poverty and geographical isolation, by expliciting using multi-level (ministry, schoolboard/agency, school/neighbourhood) strategies within education, addictions, mental health and health systems. It also includes a comprehensive approach to mental health that includes mental illness, disordered behaviours, clinical disorders, stress, self-esteem, life crises and transitions and other aspects of mental health issues.

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Best practice guidelines for mental health promotion programs: Children & Youth is a web resource from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (ON) and partners. It provides the health and social service provider (“practitioner”) with current evidence-based approaches in the application of mental health promotion concepts and principles for children and youth. It is envisioned that these guidelines will support both the inclusion and the sustainability of mental health promotion concepts. This resource is intended to support practitioners in incorporating best practice approaches to mental health promotion interventions directed toward children (7–12 years of age) and youth (13–19 years of age). This resource includes:

Guidelines: Identifies the 10 best practice guidelines for mental health promotion interventions with children and youth.
Theory: Provides practitioners with the context for mental health promotion through definitions and underlying concepts, with a focus on promoting resilience.
Resources: Provides a worksheet (MS Word doc) that can be used by practitioners to plan and implement mental health promotion initiatives, a sample worksheet (PDF) showing how it has been used in a mental health promotion initiative and a glossary of words commonly used in mental health promotion.
References and Acknowledgements: Lists references used to develop these guidelines, and provides author information and acknowledges those who helped develop this web resource.

Alberta-based Mental Health Capacity Building in Schools initiative: funded by Alberta Health and Wellness and led by the Alberta Mental Health Board (AMHB), this is a partnership involving several organizations, including Alberta Education, Alberta Children’s Services, AADAC, health regions, school divisions, and other community agencies. The Mental Health Capacity Building in Schools initiative began in 2006 with five pilot projects. Based on their success, 27 more are now being established. The projects are innovative because they bring together people and professionals at the grassroots community level to help children learn how to self-protect their mental health from an early age. “The kinds of supports provided to students vary depending on the needs of the children, youth, and their families, as well as the school and community. They include individual and group counselling, workshops topics such as bullying and substance abuse, and access to success coaches who help students with homework, life issues, and other challenges,” says Dr. Ray Block, AMHB President and CEO. “The overarching goal of the projects is the same province-wide – a mental health promotion and mental illness prevention and early intervention approach to the mental health and well-being of children and youth.” For more information, contact: lynn.damberger@amhb.ab.ca.