Associations Between School Mental Health Team Membership and Impact on Service Provision

Abstract

Schools are the most common venue in which children and youth receive mental health services. To organize delivery of mental health care to such a large number of children, use of school teams is often recommended. Yet, there is limited empirical literature about the composition of school mental health teams or teams’ relations to service provision. This study investigated team composition, including team multidisciplinarity (number of different types of professionals) and the presence of a community provider, and the relations of these two variables to service provision at Tier 1 (mental health promotion), Tier 2 (early intervention) and Tier 3 (intensive treatment) for 386 schools representing different school sizes, locations, and urbanicity. Results suggested team multidisciplinarity and the presence of a community provider were related to more frequent endorsement of service provision at schools. Practice and research implications are discussed including possible application to hiring decisions and further research with longitudinal data and information on service quality. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-021-09493-z.

Estratégias para promoção da saúde mental de crianças e adolescentes no contexto escolar: uma revisão sistemática

“…O debate a respeito da saúde mental infanto-juvenil fortaleceu-se e amadureceu exponencialmente nos últimos anos (Reaves et al, 2022;Las-Hayas et al, 2022;Souza, Almeida, Fernandes, Cid, 2021). A importância de desenvolver programas nessa área decorre da compreensão de que estratégias claramente definidas e fundamentadas cientificamente, com rigor metodológico, forneceriam orientações valiosas para os profissionais que trabalham com essa população e nesse contexto.…”

Perspectives of Behavior Analysts and Mental Health Specialists on Collaborating to Support Students with Intensive Intervention Needs

“…Third, the distinct areas of expertise and skillsets brought by BCBAs and mental health specialists present strong potential for interdisciplinary collaboration. Bringing together people with diverse perspectives and expertise is not only a defining feature of interdisciplinary collaboration (Mellin, 2009), but has been identified as a facilitator of successful outcomes for collaborative teaming (Choi & Pak, 2007; Reaves et al, 2022). To illustrate, BCBAs focus on observable and measurable aspects of both behavior and environment, making them well-equipped to assess and intervene on externalizing behaviors and aspects of the classroom context that may contribute to these behaviors.…”

“…Conceptual frameworks for interdisciplinary collaboration emphasize various characteristics (e.g., interdependence, flexibility), contextual factors (e.g., professional identity, organizational attributes), and processes (e.g., communication, cross-disciplinary training) that interact to impact collaboration outcomes (Bronstein, 2003; Lemieux-Charles & McGuire, 2006; Mellin, 2009). Growing evidence from the school mental health literature points to positive impacts of interdisciplinary collaboration—particularly those between school and community providers—on access to services (Anderson-Butcher & Ashton, 2004; Bates et al, 2019; Reaves et al, 2022). However, less research has focused on specific interdisciplinary partnerships within the school setting to support certain student populations.…”

Roles and Functions of School Mental Health Professionals Within Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems

“…First, service fragmentation occurs when mental health supports are provided in relative isolation and there is a lack of coordination and role clarity among SMH providers (Weist et al, 2012 ). While there is growing evidence for the positive impact of interprofessional collaboration on SMH service provision and student mental health outcomes (Bates et al, 2019 ; Reaves et al, 2022 ), school-based providers report relatively low rates of service coordination, which may lead to duplication of services and inadequate service provision (Santiago et al, 2014 ). Challenges to effectively coordinating mental health services include role confusion and disciplinary differences (Mellin & Weist, 2011 ).…”