School Mental Health Promotion: Supporting Children Impacted by Family and Parent Mental Health Conditions

Given the high prevalence of children living with a parent who has a mental health condition, prevention and early intervention strategies have attracted much attention over the past decade. Given the role teachers and educators play in children’s academic and social development, the school context has gained much attention in mental health promotion research. There is a growing evidence of the effectiveness of school-based mental health programs to facilitate strategies that address some of the challenges associated with stigma and prejudice.

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School mental health promotion and intervention: Experiences from four nations

School Psychology International ◽

10.1177/0143034317695379 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 343-362 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Mark D. Weist ◽

Eric J. Bruns ◽

Kelly Whitaker ◽

Yifeng Wei ◽

Stanley Kutcher ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Workforce Development ◽

Systems Of Care ◽

School Mental Health ◽

The United States ◽

Mental Health Promotion ◽

Evidence Based Practices ◽

School Based ◽

Building Systems

All around the world, partnerships among schools and other youth-serving systems are promoting more comprehensive school-based mental health services. This article describes the development of international networks for school mental health (SMH) including the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (INTERCAMHS) and the more recent School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange (SMHILE). In conjunction with World Conferences on Mental Health Promotion, SMHILE has held pre-conference and planning meetings and has identified five critical themes for the advancement of global SMH: 1) Cross-sector collaboration in building systems of care; 2) meaningful youth and family engagement; 3) workforce development and mental health literacy; 4) implementation of evidence-based practices; and 5) ongoing monitoring and quality assurance. In this article we provide general background on SMH in four nations, two showing strong progress (the United States and Canada), one showing moderate progress (Norway), and one beginning the work (Liberia). Following general background for each country, actions in relation to the SMHILE themes are reviewed. The article concludes with plans and ideas for future global collaboration towards advancement of the SMH field.

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Parents’ Perspectives of School Mental Health Promotion Initiatives are Related to Parents’ Self-Assessed Parenting Capabilities

Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools ◽

10.1017/jgc.2015.28 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 16-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Helen Askell-Williams

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Parent Engagement ◽

School Mental Health ◽

Information Provision ◽

Mental Health Promotion ◽

Whole School ◽

School Based ◽

School Initiatives

Achieving broad-scale parent1 engagement with school initiatives has proven elusive. This article reports survey data from 287 Maltese parents about their perceptions of the quality of their child's school's initiatives for promoting students’ wellbeing and mental health. Findings indicate that, on average, parents rated school initiatives highly. However, a MANCOVA of respondents grouped into three categories of Self-Assessed Parenting Capabilities (low, medium, high) showed that parents who held low perceptions of their own parenting capabilities also held significantly lower perceptions of the quality of schools’ mental health promotion initiatives. Less favourable dispositions towards school mental health promotion initiatives by parents with relatively low-parenting capabilities have implications for the design and delivery of school-based initiatives. For example, typical parent engagement, support and information provision activities (e.g., parent-teacher meetings, newsletters) might be less well received in families that arguably have a greater need to engage with such initiatives. This study has implications for whole-school mental health promotion initiatives that seek to include all parents.

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Teacher Mental Health Literacy: Results from a State-wide Survey in Schools

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckaa165.275 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽

Author(s):

U Bauer ◽

O Okan ◽

F Faulbaum

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Mental Health Literacy ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

School Mental Health ◽

Health Problems ◽

Mental Health Promotion ◽

Parental Mental Health ◽

Whole School

Abstract Background Teachers have an important role to play in context of mental health literacy (MHL) promotion of school-aged children. Their MHL is seen as the counterpart of student`s health literacy. Especially vulnerable schoolchildren such as those affected by adverse life events (e.g. parental mental health problems) can benefit from programs. In addition, the whole school environment has impact on school mental health promotion. Yet, only little evidence is available on teachers MHL in Europe. The aim is to provide evidence from a state-wide survey on the state of MHL of teachers in Germany. Methods Based on semi-structured interviews with school teachers from all school types in one federal state, including primary and secondary schools, a MHL online questionnaire was developed. The survey was conducted in in 2017 in N = 2500 teachers in Germany. Descriptive and regression analyse have been performed. Results Teachers feel considerable uncertainties when working with children affected by adversities related to parental mental health problems. Dealing with the social family background seems hard. Teachers state that they don`t feel comfortable when aiming at mental health promotion of affected children or children in general. Data also show that they may tend to make misjudgements, and that they are not sufficiently trained to address mental health issues in the classrooms. Regression models show that the degree and quality of teaching mental health is affected by differences across school forms, satisfaction with and engagement of school principals in mental health action, learned strategies to respond to parents, and experienced stress, burden and exposure during their work. Conclusions Increasing teacher MHL and the environmental capacities and responsiveness towards school mental health promotion should be an important capacity building strategy. Policy support for school mental health promotion is a critical means to sustain effective whole-school approaches.

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