1 / Katie Simon

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-55).

No description available.

It is generally reported that around one in 10 children in the UK today suffer from some kind of mental health problem. It is of course compulsory for all children between the ages of five and 16 to partake in a certain amount of education, which in the vast majority of cases means school. Head teachers are statutorily obliged to safeguard the children in their care, which also means addressing their physical and mental health. Therefore schools are growing in their importance as sites of mental health care interventions. There is little or no published research which explores the phenomenon of on site mental health provision from the perspective of the head teachers, in terms of how it impacts them. For this study, five head teachers of mixed sex primary schools were interviewed about the mental health service that they had commissioned for their school. All five participants employed the same service. Using the interpretive phenomenological approach to analyse these interviews, five major themes were discovered: ambivalence towards the mental health service; mixed feelings towards mental health issues; that the mental health service helped alleviate heads’ sense of anxiety; the paradoxical nature of head teachers’ intersubjective experience; and that while head teachers like to describe themselves as part of a collective identity, they locate themselves as individuals when they feel the need to assert power. It is hoped that these findings might aid providers of mental health services to schools and children by providing a more sophisticated understanding both of head teachers’, and therefore commissioners’, anxieties and positive feelings about such services.

Children go to school for approximately 32 hours each week of an academic year. Many children who are in need of mental health treatment do not get the services they need because of barriers such as lack of access and stigma. Teachers are one of the primary sources of referrals for children's mental health services, and they often make referrals based on their perceptions of their students' mental health needs. Although teachers are typically the primary source of referrals for mental health services, they usually do not have any specialized mental health training. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the perceived needs of teachers' in Title I schools on what is needed to help their students with emotional and behavioral problems. This research study was framed by Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, which provides one framework for research and practice of school-based mental health. Bronfenbrenner's theory explains the impact of a child's interrelations with classmates, peers, parents, community, and society upon his or her development, particularly his or her mental health. Data was collected from audiotaped face-to-face interviews with 12 Title I elementary teachers. The interviews were then transcribed, coded, and several themes were identified. Relevant themes included the school's role in mental health, the school's current plan to help children, quality of mental health services, barriers to services, supports at school for mental health; reasons for referrals, administration training and classes on mental health, behavioral management systems, and changes to classrooms that will benefit children with mental health problems. Teachers are on frontlines everyday with students and should have all the training that's needed to help their students be successful.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-167).

In this mixed methods dissertation study, I used design-based research (DBR; Brown, 1992; Cobb et al., 2003; The Design-Based Research Collective, 2003) to develop and refine a Tier 1 professional development (PD) intervention in trauma-informed teaching practices. This intervention was implemented with all full-time educators at one school and focused on Tier 1 practices to be implemented for and applicable to all students. I engaged in ongoing collaboration with educators at Oakdale Elementary School, a suburban Massachusetts school, to study and refine this intervention. I conducted ongoing qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, which informed both the intervention design and study of process and outcomes. This study investigated how and why the intervention evolved over time, the acceptability of the intervention, shifts in thinking and teaching practices, and how those shifts were facilitated. Over the course of implementation, 10 collaborative design decisions were made to create an intervention that addressed the needs and desires of Oakdale’s educators as well as the structural affordances and constraints of PD implementation at Oakdale. The intervention contained three after-school PD trainings: (1) Secondary Traumatic Stress and Self-Care, (2) Trauma 101: Supporting Students who Have Experienced Trauma, and (3) Educational Impacts of the Opioid Epidemic. Educators rated the intervention favorably: 88% of year-end survey participants were very satisfied with the trainings and 94% felt that the trainings would be very useful in other schools. In addition, Oakdale’s educators reported shifts in their thinking (e.g., increased empathy) and teaching practices (e.g., enacting proactive strategies) that they attributed to the trainings. Finally, based on the data collected in this study, I developed a theoretical model of how to support educators’ learning and implementation of trauma-informed teaching practices. This theoretical model identifies contextual, relational, and procedural elements of the intervention that participants reported to facilitate learning. This model can be tested in future studies of trauma-informed teaching PD and, if substantiated, used to guide additional intervention design. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. / 2023-05-13T00:00:00Z

Globally, children and youth are more vulnerable to experiencing mental health challenges; early intervention is key to preventing ongoing mental health difficulties into adolescence and adulthood. School-based mental health interventions have proven to be effective but require a significant amount of collaboration between teachers, parents, mental health specialists and other important stakeholders. Equally noteworthy are the significant treatment, resource and capacity gaps between high and low to middle income countries when it comes to child mental health; the SHINE research group seeks to implement a school-based mental health program in countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region. They also intend to scale-up the prevention and intervention capabilities of said countries to improve overall child mental health. This study investigated the role of collaborative care in SHINE’s program development and implementation processes, while examining the cultural and societal challenges associated with implementing a school mental health program developed primarily in high-income countries to specific non-Western contexts. Individual and small-group indepth interviews were conducted with ten key stakeholders from the SHINE team and partner countries (specifically Iran, Jordan and Egypt). Findings identified the potential for the collaborative care approach within the SHINE school mental health program to greatly ameliorate child mental health outcomes. Additionally, participants noted the necessity for clearer stakeholder role definition and differentiation of general vs specific program elements between countries. Challenges associated with implementing the intervention in the Eastern Mediterranean region included the dominant role of the family, challenging societal norms and stigmatization and structural barriers to applying SHINE’s specific program resources. In summary, the role of collaborative care is increasingly important to SHINE’s current efforts in improving child mental health, however, individual cultural and country characteristics should be an area of emphasis moving forward. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The SHINE research group are implementing a school-based mental health intervention in the Eastern Mediterranean region, alongside a facilitated collaborative learning group involving key local and global stakeholders. This study focuses on the collaborative care element of the school-based mental health program and its impact on the overall functioning of the intervention, in different country contexts. Collaborative care involves the interactions between parents, teachers, mental health professionals and researchers to ensure the sustainability of the program as well as its scalability to different country contexts. This is an exploratory qualitative study with a case study design; data has been collected with ten participants through individual and small group in-depth interviews. Interviews were transcribed, coded and then cross-compared using thematic analysis to identify overarching patterns. The primary goals of the study are to examine the role of collaboration as well as to consider some of the challenges of applying Western psychological interventions to diverse country and cultural contexts.

Objective: To examine parents’ perceptions of stigma regarding mental health services for their child, consider stigma in the context of novel service delivery settings (e.g., telehealth, primary care, and schools), and evaluate stigma with other factors known to influence service access. Methods: 347 caregivers of children with psychosocial concerns completed surveys regarding their perceptions of stigma, service delivery settings, and barriers to care. Results:Parents endorsed low levels of stigma around services. Greater perceived stigma was related to less willingness to seek services in a mental/behavioral health center or schools but not in other settings, even when other barriers were considered. Having a younger child and a history of prior services was associated with greater willingness to seek services. Conclusions: Stigma does appear to present as a barrier, but only for some parents. Providing mental health services to young children and their parents in some nontraditional settings may increase access.

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