The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 requires the examination of schools to determine which factors of school quality relate to improved student outcomes. Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is one such framework that proposes to create a positive school climate through school-wide principles of applied behavior analysis. These…

Purpose: Adolescent mental health is a public health priority. Considered an early intervention approach, Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) trains adults to provide initial assistance to adolescents experiencing a mental health problem or crisis. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the U.S. version of YMHFA (YMHFA-USA) among graduate…

Ethnic minority adolescents receive not only less formal mental health services than their ethnic majority peers but also less school-based mental health services. Little is known about the extent to which adolescents indicate their teachers help them with their mental health problems. The aim of the current study was to investigate ethnic…

Mental health care in the United States is both important and expensive. In many instances, those with the least amount of access to quality mental health care services also face other social inequities. The government has addressed this issue in a myriad of ways, some effective, others not. The outpatient development model creates a barrier to…

This article provides readers with information regarding the impact of disasters on children. It introduces basic relief efforts and mental health services that are common to most disaster-related situations. Classroom- and community-based interventions are also included along with conclusions and key points for educators.

Background: Children and adolescents exposed to chronic trauma have a greater risk for mental health disorders and school failure. Children and adolescents of minority racial/ethnic groups and those living in poverty are at greater risk of exposure to trauma and less likely to have access to mental health services. School-based health centers…

Specialty courts, such as mental health courts, drug courts, and veterans treatment courts, were developed with the intention of reducing recidivism and obtaining better outcomes for participants selected from the particular populations served by each court. Efforts to improve the public good have produced a reimagining of the justice system with…

Assessing treatment integrity is essential to understanding how well school-based interventions are delivered. The assessment of treatment integrity is especially challenging for interventions that provide one-on-one peer support over the phone. To address this gap, we explored treatment integrity approaches used for the "Parent…

Students in foster care frequently experience barriers that influence their personal, social, and academic success. These challenges may include trauma, abuse, neglect, and loss--all of which influence a student's ability to be successful in school. Combined with these experiences, students in foster care lack the same access to resources and…

Psychiatric disorders, particularly substance use disorders, are an impactful and highly prevalent public health concern in youth from low-income neighborhoods (YLINs). Indeed, prevention and intervention programs for mental health disorders that have evidenced improvements in youth from general population are not well integrated into community…

The 2017-18 State Budget Act allocated $5M to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges (CCC) to support a Veterans Resource Center (VRC) grant program designed to help CCC establish or enhance on-campus VRCs. In an effort to better understand the current state of VRCs in the wake of this funding, Irvine Valley College (IVC)…

In this commentary of Neil Humphrey's "Are the Kids Alright? Examining the Intersection between Education and Mental Health" (EJ1247696), Diahann Gallard shares her views based on her experiences as an academic, a researcher, an ex-school teacher and a parent of teenage children. She concludes that like Humphrey, she believes there is…

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a content-based workshop on public school special education team members knowledge and perceptions towards the identification of students with mental health challenges. Participants were professional public school employees from a public school district in southeastern Massachusetts.…

Growing acknowledgement that adverse childhood experiences are widespread and can threaten healthy development has led to advocacy for schools to systematically incorporate trauma-sensitive practices and policies. While the background and training of school psychologists would seem to make them the ideal professionals to lead such work, little is…

Introduction: People with intellectual disability (ID) face barriers to accessing mental healthcare. Individuals who have had significant experience in intellectual disability mental health (IDMH) can provide insights into strategies to overcome these barriers. Methods: This historical investigation applied an interpretive descriptive approach…