School mental health: International perspectives

1. School mental health:International perspectives A/Professor Louise Rowling President Intercamhs International Alliance for Child Mental Health and Schools

2. Themes Context and Culture Language, existing workforce Assessing inequities Snapshots of practice Evidence base Quality practice

3. Context and Culture • Health and Education • Partnerships • Why partnerships • Challenges in partnerships • Youth participation • Existing health and education policies, practices and infrastructure • Politics

4. Language, workforce & stigma Careful use of language: • Large existing workforce • Misinterpretation of mental health as mental illness • Use language of the community and form links to schools’ core business • Avoid labelling young people

5. Young people´s lives - Happiness

6. A Snapshot of Policy Disparity within country and across SW Pacific Region Child mental health promotion and prevention capacity mapping HDI = Human Development Index (2004) UNDP

7. Snapshots • Context: USA some well developed educational services in and out of schools, whole school mental health promotion struggles for funding; breadth and depth in prevention science, but challenges in going to scale • Context: Countries with few resources: few if any trained personnel; grappling with chronic physical health problems; no priority.

8. Snapshots • Approaches: • resilience • social emotional learning, social emotional and behavioural skills • positive psychology, strengths, assets • whole school approach, health promoting schools, healthy schools, safe schools • services, interventions • at risk, mental ill health Within a whole school approach

9. School mental health promotion Some underpinning conceptual principles • Avoid stigmatising • Strengths, assets, active engagement, success and hope

10. Evidence based principles for school mental health promotion • take a whole school approach • use a social competence approach rather than focusing on specific problem behaviours • employ interactive and participatory methodologies • involve planned implementation over a number of years • engage key partners • build core competencies and capacities of participants • use comprehensive evaluation strategies that employ evaluation logic models Jané-Lopis & Barry, 2005

11. PLUS Quality practice criteria: • engage the leadership at various levels within the school community; • embed prevention interventions within whole school; • attention to professional development for school staff; • materials and processes that match school practice conditions, realistic and sustainable; • collaborative practices within schools and between schools, agencies and parents; • allocation of a budget; • acknowledgement of the critical role of the local context; • building on initiatives already underway in the school or linking with other school priorities. Rowling & Mason 2007

12. INTERCAMHS statement on "Promoting Mental Health through Schools" Supports awhole school approachinvolving effective mental health promotion, intervention and treatment, supported bypolicies, skills forsocial emotional learning, a healthypsycho-social school environmentandaccess to servicesin the school or in the broadercommunity. Encourages thefull participationof teachers, students, families and community agencies, with informed dialogue andcollaborationamong peopleand programmes. Action supported by principlesvaluing diversity and inclusiveness, and practice thatcreatesconditions for empowermentand schoolorganizational development. Evidenceto guide training, policy, research and practice has a critical role. www.intercamhs.org

13. International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools Join online (no fee) at www.intercamhs.org  l.rowling@edfac.usyd.edu.au