Perceptions teachers have regarding their students are associated with their students' school performance. Similarly, students' psychoeducational and psychosocial functioning are partly shaped by their beliefs about teachers' opinions of them. Psychoeducational performance and psychosocial interactions are linked with perceived stereotype threats.…

There is an urgent need for leadership skills when facilitating communication and engendering acceptance and respect among people from culturally different backgrounds, opposing viewpoints, and vastly different experiences. Thus, when facilitating intercultural group dialogs, varying institutions, agencies, and businesses need culturally competent…

Children and youth in schools are subject to the effects of the larger culture's attitudes and values related to body size. When negatively biased, these attitudes and values can have detrimental effects and thus emerge as relevant to educational and psychological consultants. Drawing on the nascent field of Fat Studies with its focus on the…

Clergy are significant providers of mental health services in the United States. The literature shows disparity between the need of clergy for mental health training and the type of brief training provided through seminar formats. It also indicates that the collaborative professional activities of clinicians and clergy may be enhanced when (1) the…

Research Findings: Early childhood mental health consultation aims to reduce problem behaviors and improve social skills in young children primarily through changes in the classroom environment and teacher practices. We conducted a systematic review of the literature and identified 14 rigorous studies that reported on child-level outcomes. These…

This report summarizes key activities and contributions and offers recommendations for project operations. The pilot project was very successful in building a solid foundation for the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation Program. Practitioners and other regional stakeholders clearly indicated that the project is providing a much…

Community Based Consultation, a consultation/education model appropriate for use in CMHC's and mental health departments is described. The model is being implemented by a Community Services Team of a rural mental health department. Appropriate strategies, a conceptualization of the community along power dimensions, a decision-making structure for…

This report discusses consultation as a process of assessment, defining, implementing, and evaluating. Within the context of institutional change, these steps are useful in viewing the policies and procedures that make up the institution's functional environment, the institution's social environment, and the institution's physical environment.…

Consultation with community mental health agencies is necessary, the rationale being that: (1) traditional approaches of therapy are expensive; (2) consultation can interrelate total existing social service networks; and (3) community change requires cooperation between community agencies and community resources. The consultant and consultees can…

Presents one position on consultation that integrates a theoretical model, a process model, and a curriculum for training school-based mental health consultants. Elements of the proposed curriculum include: ethics, relationship building, maintaining rapport, defining problems, gathering data, sharing information, generating and supporting…

The role of the consultant in the mental health consultation process has been marked by disagreement. One view maintains that consultation should be a collaborative venture between consultant and consultee. Alternately, another view holds that consultants should make use of their expert power and direct the consultation process. Empirical evidence…

This review describes two books that provide complimentary views of mental health consultation in current educational settings. Conoley's book reviews diverse consultation models, while Alpert's book presents 10 case studies from elementary schools through colleges. A broad spectrum of approaches, issues, intervention techniques, and client…

Presents and evaluates a model for group mental health consultation with teachers in which sessions are organized around mental health issues rather than cases. The rationale and advantages of the model are explicated and the different roles of the consultant during the session and the variety of techniques employed are described. (Author/KS)

While much of the development of consultation programs in mental health centers has been independent of the traditional treatment program, this document describes a consultation program which is closely integrated with an agency's treatment program. The emphasis is on system change and the development of prevention programming. The system-crisis…