Project Details
RRTC for Children's Mental Health Study 4: The School-based Mental Health Services Study
Description
The current study investigates school-mental health collaboration in the context of the overall mental health system, and will specifically investigate two other factors in the Center's model: financing methods that are consistent with implementing an effective system of care, and mechanisms that ensure strong family voice at all levels of the system.
* The study will produce new knowledge about the status of collaboration between education and mental health systems from a national and community perspective, and will explicate the factors associated with the effective implementation of comprehensive and integrated school-based mental health services for children identified as being emotionally disturbed and served in special education programs.
* This study will illustrate the interdependence of the national, community, and local (school) levels for implementing effective services for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances and will describe the specific services they receive, and the providers and funding sources of these services. The study team will assess both formal and informal inter-agency agreements that support the provision of mental health services to children in schools and will assess the effects of these services on the functioning of the children and their families.
There are three research questions driving this investigation:
(1) What are the dimensions (factors) of effective school-based mental health services?
(2) Do school-based models that vary on the proposed factors vary in effectiveness?
(3) Are comprehensive integrated school-based mental health services more effective at the student level and overall school level than models that are limited to the delivery of services from an outside agency?
There are three components to the project, listed below. Components 1 and 2 of the current study will contribute to Study 1 and Study 2 of the Center through the collection of information specific to the factors that facilitate inter-agency collaboration between the education and mental health systems:
(1) a description of the level of collaboration between the education and mental health systems from a national perspective;
(2) an articulation of the processes through which schools and mental health systems collaborate, at the community level, to increase the capacity for effective mental health programs for children and their families; and
(3) an empirical evaluation of two different models of school-based mental health services.
* This compoment will employ a longitudinal matched-comparison group design, using two distinct data collection efforts: (a) contextual/community factors associated with the implementation of the model, and (b) collection of standardized information through established questionnaires and instruments.