Mental Health

According to the U.S. Surgeon General and the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, the United States is facing a public health crisis in mental healthcare for children and adolescents. Approximately 20% of students have emotional or behavioral disturbances severe enough to warrant intervention; one in 10 suffers from mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment. Yet, in any given year, only about one in five receives specialty mental health services. 

ASHA works to integrate schools into a comprehensive "system of care" addressing the emotional and behavioral health care needs of children and adolescents. Systems of care are often defined as a comprehensive spectra of health and mental health services, organized into a coordinated network that meets the multiple and changing needs of youth with severe emotional disturbances and their families. A system of care connects various systems and practice levels and allows responsive adaptation to changing conditions and contexts. Such an approach has been shown to improve functional behaviors. Characteristics of systems of care include:

  • Each part of the system adheres to principles of individualized, family centered, strengths based [not pathology oriented] and culturally competent services;
  • Interventions are provided in adolescents' natural environment: schools, homes, neighborhoods and the community;
  • With the exception of multi-systemic therapy and some case management, direct care providers need not be clinically trained professionals. They are often parents, volunteers, and counseling para- professionals who are trained and supervised by mental health professionals;
  • Interventions can occur under the auspices of any of the human service sectors such as education, mental health, child welfare or juvenile justice;
  • Interventions are developed and studied in the field with real world youth and family clients, in contrast to volunteer subjects in university settings; and
  • When the full continuum of care is in place, services are much less expensive to provide than institutional care.

ASHA addresses the mental health needs of youth as part of a five-year cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau's PiPPAH initiative. The goal of this project is to strengthen the capacity of schools to serve as a key link in a comprehensive, coordinated system of effective programs that promote the social and emotional health of adolescents, reduce targeted risks associated with unmet mental health needs, increase early identification, screening and assessment and appropriate treatment and follow-up.

The ASHA Partners have launched a prototype for a multidisciplinary database that can provide efficient access to effective programs and practices. The database offers information on a range of social, emotional and academic behaviors that might be linked to a mental health condition. The target audience for this resource is health and education professionals in schools, parents, and community providers who are working with adolescents to foster adolescents' mental health.

The database includes resources on: 

  • whole school and curriculum-based approaches that promote adolescents' assertiveness and decreases their aggressive behaviors;
  • classroom management strategies that minimize negative outcomes involving students exhibiting aggressive behaviors;
  • classroom management strategies for identifying students requiring assessment and screening for aggression;
  • recommended referral procedures (both in and out of school);
  • recommended reliable and valid instruments for preliminary screening in schools;
  • best practice intervention strategies;
  • references to current literature on best practice and research;
  • model policy statements;
  • relevant legal statutes;
  • best practice treatment protocols;
  • medication protocols; and
  • informed consent and confidentiality guidelines relative to school health records.

Partners with ASHA in Coordinating Mental Health Programs 
for Adolescents in Schools and Communities