This brief details the significant strides made by the Paradise Unified School District (PUSD) in establishing robust school mental health systems to facilitate healing and recovery. PUSD, which serves the rural communities of Paradise, Magalia, and Stirling City--areas deeply affected by the 2018 Camp Fire--has launched several key initiatives…

Evidence-based substance use prevention programs have proliferated in schools and are being adopted by districts in rural settings and internationally. Little attention, however, has been paid to the adaptation process that occurs when these programs are moved to different contexts. In this commentary, the authors draw upon their experience with…

Rising rates of violence, teen pregnancy, child suicide, poverty, and youth crime are providing a wake-up call for educators and communities. This handbook is the culminating effort of a project designed to improve health programs in small, rural schools. Of the 16,000 school districts in the United States, more than one-half are small and rural;…

The School-Community Health Alliance for Rural Practitioners (SCHARP) was planned and implemented to address the severe health education and service problems faced by school children and citizens of rural America. Small rural school and communities lack the resources, expertise, and leverage to influence public policy to address these needs. This…

Summaries of four papers and a discussion presented at a symposium on expanding the research base of systems of care for children's mental health examine school-wide systems of positive behavioral support and provide data on a three-tiered Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) program for improving mental health functioning of…

Notes the evolving definition of mental health "primary prevention," the future of which is currently jeopardized. Describes a study of the effectiveness of primary prevention in relieving some of the signs and symptoms of teacher burnout. Includes the format of a teacher inservice program which addresses teacher burnout. (SB)

A pilot system of individualized and rurally compatible community-based alternatives to residential and institutional treatment settings for seriously emotionally disturbed children was evaluated. The results indicate that this intensive, community-based, service-delivery system appears to improve children's behavioral and emotional functioning,…

This report tells the stories of dozens of low-income families from all parts of Kentucky. It is a personal report, compiled after 4 months of travel and interviews. The report also makes recommendations for improvements in programs designed to serve impoverished families. The introduction discusses the seeming paradoxes of poverty and generosity,…

Describes program of a southeastern Washington rural community mental health center to promote preventative interventions in five rural elementary and high schools and to improve coordination between county social service agencies and rural schools. Discusses implementation, acceptance, continuation, and evaluation of the program. (LFL)

Focuses on rural service delivery issues common to special education, school psychology, and mental health and outlines training-related solutions. Cautions against simplistic dichotomy of rural versus urban service delivery and professional isolationism. Recommends five skill categories for rural training: generalist training, personal and…

This collection of 10 author-contributed papers addresses various aspects of programming for students with behavioral disorders. Papers have the following titles and authors: (1) "Teacher Ratings of School Survival Skills and Setting Demands" (Bill Bursuck et al.); (2) "Toward Least Restrictive Curriculum for Behaviorally Disordered Adolescents"…

This publication lists 265 federal funding programs available to rural areas. The programs were selected from the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, 1997, which is available online from FAPRS (the Federal Assistance Programs Retrieval System). Entries are listed under the following federal departments or agencies: Department of Agriculture,…

Rural Health Outreach is a federal program of demonstration grants designed to encourage organizations to cooperate in delivering health care services to rural Americans. Thirteen programs utilizing innovative collaborations between state agencies, schools, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, volunteers, and the private sector are described a year…