Transcript
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Chapter 74

Strategies for Marketing Successful School Mental Health Services

Christine Anlauf Sabatino

Getting Started

The fundamental purpose of school is “to provide a setting for teaching and learning in which all

children can prepare themselves for the world they now live in and the world they will face in the

future” (Costin, 1987, p. 538). The purpose of school-based social work services is to help each

student reap the full benefit of his or education and to assist vulnerable children and their

families in making the educational process a success (Constable, 2002; Costin, 1969a).

The context and direction of school social work has shifted dramatically over time given

various social, political, and economic circumstances and different local, state, and federal

initiatives (Hare & Rome, 2002). At the beginning of the 20th century, local public schools

recognized that there were forces in the environment that impeded the teaching-learning process

(Oppenheimer, 1925). Visiting teachers were hired in recognition of the interplay among the

home, school, and community that supported or thwarted endeavors to educate schoolchildren.

They supplemented the teacher’s understanding of the student, interpreted to the school the

child’s out-of-school life in the community, and interpreted to parents the demands of the school

system (Culbert, 1916).

At the end of the 20th century, the U.S. government recognized the need to address the

academic needs of a variety of student populations, including economically disadvantaged

preschool children (Project Head Start, 1965; Head Start Program Reauthorization, 1994), low-

income and educationally disadvantaged school-age children (ESEA, 1966), and children with

disabilities (IDEA, 1997), while also holding schools accountable through academic achievement

annual yearly progress reports for specific vulnerable students (No Child Left Behind Act of

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2001). Most recently, the government has adopted several new educational approaches, including

prevention programs such as Response to Intervention (RTI), behavioral programs such as

positive behavioral interventions (PBIs), and academic enrichment programs during non-school

hours such as the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC).

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the president’s New Freedom Commission

Report recognizes the need to address the psychosocial needs of students, making the case for

expanded school mental health services (Cooper, 2008). Consequently, today’s school social

practice models blend together historical and contemporary frameworks to address population

trends, socioeconomic issues, school concerns, and mental health issues that influence school

achievement.

Given the historical breadth of our role, the sheer magnitude of school problems, and the

rate of unexpected educational changes influencing the teaching-learning process, how are

school social work mental health services and school-based community mental health providers

to be integrated in the school system? What are effective strategies for establishing successful

school mental health services?

What We Know

Marketing Successful School Mental Health Services

We know that school mental health services are becoming increasingly important for schools and

students because of the growing number of psychosocial problems, creating challenging school

behaviors that impede school performance (Bower, 2009). School mental health services are

intended to foster multidisciplinary collaboration and strengthen the social-emotional learning

environment, enabling communities, schools, families, and students to achieve school success

(Ball, Anderson-Butcher, Mellin &, Green, 2010). They aim to prevent, identify, treat, and

reduce the impact of mental health problems on academic achievement.

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We also know that school systems have been greatly transformed by their engagement

with public health care and managed mental health care systems, which have been used to serve

students whose behaviors are extremely difficult and interfere with the classroom climate

(Hurwitz & Weston, 2010). Some districts go to the community to engage the local public health

systems to provide school-based public health services that now include mental health services

(Dryfoos, Quinn, & Barkin, 2005). Other districts are going into the national marketplace and

partnering with public organizations to expand school-based services for at-risk students

financed through Medicaid providers, Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), and Health

Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) (Greene & Lee, 2001; Koppleman & Lear, 1998; Streeter &

Franklin, 2002). Other districts are using private, nonprofit organizations to provide a variety of

national and local programs for at-risk students, including counseling services, such as

Communities In Schools (http://www.communitiesinschools.org) and Youth Guidance in

Chicago (http://www.youth-guidance.org).

These changes require school social workers and community-based mental health

providers to compete with market-oriented and business-driven decisions made by school

systems. In other words, traditional models of school mental health service delivery systems

must be expanded to include more contemporary practices (Franklin, 2005, 2001). It is a

phenomenon that is ramping up quickly in this age of online technology and diminishing school

budgets. It is also a phenomenon that makes many professionals uncomfortable because standard

marketing is seen to be driven by an underlying capitalistic and entrepreneurial value structure.

If one moves beyond this assumption and studies social marketing, it becomes clear that

it is all about using innovation to develop new solutions to social problems that are effective and

just. Social marketing is meant to ensure the fair allocation of means to support and improve

well-being. Further, current trends in social marketing are consistent with traditional social work

principles of professional communication, collaboration, education, and values.

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Barker (2003) defines “social marketing” as “activities designed to generate interest and

demand by consumers, resource suppliers, licensing and credentialing organizations, and the

general public for the services of social agencies” (p. 403). Social work literature contains little

scholarship or research that examines this topic (Garrett, 2006; McCroskey, Picus, Yoo,

Marsenich, & Robillard, 2004). Social marketing materials are more often found when searching

literature from other professions, including their publications (Elefant & Black, 2010; Safko &

Brake, 2009; Baum & Henkel, 2004; Grand, 2002; Lawless & Wright, 2000; Lawless, 1997;

APA, 1996), conference proceedings (Social Marketing and Public Health, 2011; World Non-

Profit and Social Marketing Conference, 2011), association literature (The International

Association of Social Marketers), and Web sites (www.social-marketing.com).

School social workers must take leadership, build community linkages, and sustain

organizational partnerships that provide integrated mental health services in school settings

(Weist, Ambrose, & Lewis, 2006). Without giving up our professional identity, values, and

traditions, we must take the opportunity to learn about social marketing. Behind these business

concepts, there are fundamental social work functions that help improve student learning, youth

development, family health, and community life.

A review of traditional social marketing practices indicates that it is driven by the 4 Ps:

product, price, place, and promotion that aims to change consumer behavior (Lamb, Hair, &

McDaniel, 2011). Contemporary social marketing strategies, however, move beyond the scope of

changing the behavior of one person to harnessing the power of groups, organizations, and

communities to co-create change at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-level.

Adapting the traditional terms of the 4 Ps, school social workers and community mental

health providers must market their product as academic success in order to be deemed relevant

to the school system. Using the robust literature that links mental health and school performance

(Hoagwood et al., 2007), providers must use the language of the school system to show how

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adopting mental health services provides an educational benefit to the school system. In other

words, the consumer (the school system) must be satisfied that the product (mental health

services) will provide solutions for an educational problem.

With federal policies shifting costs to local communities for many services, school boards

find their budgets dwindling and communities casting a critical eye upon the price of services.

Mental health services must be discussed in terms of the savings they provide to the school

system. School social workers and community providers must do their homework to document

the cost of universal, targeted group, and individual RTI mental health programs that verify that

these services foster increased attendance, academic performance, standard test scores, or

graduation rates, which are the central outcome variables for the school system (Sabatino, 2009).

Otherwise, our mental health services may be categorized as optional because they are not cost

effective.

Place refers to the location where interaction occurs with clients, where programs and

services are most accessible. Every child walks through a classroom door; therefore, the school

system becomes the most salient environment for improving psychosocial adjustment that

interferes with academic success (Haynes, 2002). States, school districts, and schools often take

the position that mental health programs have their own mission and funding stream, and they

guard against using any educational resources for what they see as the benefit of another agency.

School social workers and school-based mental health providers must repeatedly state that the

aim is to provide students convenient access to support services that are meant to help raise

academic achievement and lower negative school outcomes. It must be constantly stated that the

goal is not to create a freestanding mental health clinic within the walls of the school building,

but to foster school success through work with school administrators, teachers, support staff, and

families as they all strive to address issues that interfere with a positive school culture and

student success.

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These three factors are central to promoting school-based mental health services by

school social workers, and other providers cannot be understated. The final step is to identify key

school personnel and best channels of communication to showcase mental health expertise and

reinforce the stance of championing the school system, supporting the teaching-learning process,

and improving academic performance for at-risk students.

There are many new contemporary social marketing strategies that can be used to

promote school mental health services (Safko & Brake, 2009). These technologies help providers

to expand their patterns of communication, collaborate with school personnel, and educate

families, schools, and communities. They are aimed at developing social networks that update

the public and professionals about the vast array of information, programs, and services available

for treating child and youth mental health issues in the school setting.

For example, one platform is Facebook. Practitioners use this forum not only to post

information about their own type of service but also to update schools and communities about

salient resources, best practices, and local conferences. Others write up short pieces on different

student mental health topics, much like articles one finds on WebMD. Often, potential client

systems want to learn about a provider or service online before setting up an offline meeting.

Other social media include MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Each of these platforms allows one

to develop contacts, follow and receive updates relevant to a practice area, and diversify a

professional network.

Finally, one may purchase a World Wide Web domain, buy the supporting software

programs, and brand oneself and one’s school mental health services. Search engines, such as

Google, will identify these Web sites when key terms, such “social worker near Arlington, VA,”

are used to find relevant providers. At this time, hard-copy materials such as marketing

brochures are seen as obsolete because the content is static and cannot be readily updated.

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Despite its increasing importance, professionals have many entrenched misconceptions

about social marketing, such as “my clients do not use it,” or “it’s unprofessional.” School

systems may also be naysayers.

There are many successes and failures attached to the use of social marketing, but the fact

is that these technologies are here to stay in one form or another. Clients of many diverse

backgrounds do use Internet services all the time, even using the public library to gain access if it

is unaffordable on a private basis. The Code of Ethics and the cardinal values of the profession

still apply to the use of social marketing. It is not a fad but a paradigm shift in methods for

communicating, collaborating, and networking. It is a tool for achieving a goal, not the goal itself

(Elefant & Black, 2010).

Keep in mind that school systems themselves are using the Internet for classroom

instruction, as a homework tool, and for communication between school and family. How do

professionals, especially school social workers, wish to use social marketing tools to bring

attention to the fact that school systems offer a variety of mental health resources aimed at

alleviating psychosocial stressors and strengthening school performance? This is a question that

deserves a rich discussion, because in the end it is better to structure our own answer than to let

the school system structure it for us.

What We Can Do

Unique Challenges

With these issues in mind, it is important to examine several unique aspects of a school system

that come into play when developing either contemporary or classical school mental health

services. The challenges are many in this host setting; however, the fundamental fact is that the

school system is the de facto mental health system for children (Jacob, 2008), and untreated

mental health problems have a negative impact on school success (Powers, Bower, Webber, &

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Martinson, 2011). Knowing contextual issues and potential barriers will go a long way to

overcoming objections to implementing school mental health services.

The Role of Organizational Structures, Ethics, and Multidisciplinary Teams

The school system is a hierarchical bureaucratic structure consisting of various subsystems that

operate within specific policies and procedures and limit the power delegated to positions at

every level in the school system. School social workers are traditionally part of the subsystem

known as pupil personnel services, a “support service” that includes a variety of professional

staff including psychologists, special education teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, attendance

officers, and speech therapists. Other professionals, such as physicians, psychiatrists, and

dentists, may become part of this subsystem on a contractual basis. Each professional discipline

provides a distinct service. There may be overlap between services, especially in the provision of

school mental health services.

A thorough understanding of the school subsystems must include the crucial role played

by nonprofessional staff. Clerical staff, cafeteria workers, and custodians are central to the day-

to-day operations of the school system. Further, non-academic personnel such as parent

volunteers and community mentors are an integral part of the school system (Winters & Easton,

1983). The working arrangements among these various subsystems create a culture and climate

that varies for each school and school district, requiring social workers to recalibrate their mental

health services for each separate school assignment.

Within this organizational structure, the pupil personnel director, principal, and

multidisciplinary team members are the key personnel with whom one must establish an

effective working relationship to delineate mental health duties and responsibilities. Through

formal and informal channels of communication, school social workers and mental health

providers instruct others about their professional knowledge, always using this information to

enrich the schools’ efforts to bring about student success. They bring attention to the fact that

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there are numerous skills needed to further academic achievement, and no one person or

profession has the training to address the biopsychosocial educational needs of all students or

overcome the ecological barriers that impede educational progress.

It is critical to note that social workers employed within a school system have a unique

role because they must address the needs of two clients: (1) the school system and (2) the child

and family. School-based practitioners must always represent the school system under whose

auspices they serve. At the same time, the social work Code of Ethics gives priority to providing

support to vulnerable and at-risk children and families. School social workers must examine the

transactions between the student and school system, taking this information back to the system

and activating both the student and the school to respond in ways that support the fit between

them. In other words, school-based social workers and mental health workers may not tilt their

mental health services toward serving the school’s priorities because they are employed by the

school system.

There is a growing body of literature that examines organizational issues that impede the

expansion of school social work or community-based mental health services in the schools

(Raines, 2008; Tower, 2000). Common barriers include lack of teacher training in how to

recognize mental health symptoms and how to support students with mental health disorders in

the classroom; lack of resources and time due to budget constraints and a high ratio of workers to

students; and a shortage of child mental health professionals in the schools and community

(Powers, Bower, Webber, & Martinson, 2011).

Ethics and Confidentiality

Social workers are bound by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of

Ethics (NASW, 1999), which assists practitioners in applying ethical principles and standards to

practice and policy issues that have implicit and explicit ethical concerns. For school mental

health providers, dilemmas may arise within multiple arenas because of the many stakeholders in

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the educational system. When assessing and treating mental health problems, school social

workers and community-based mental health providers must use a sophisticated, ethical

decision-making process. They must apply the proper ethical standards to the mental health

problem because personal, professional, organizational, and societal problems may be reflected

in school failure (Joseph, 1983; Lowenberg, Dolgoff, & Harrington, 2000).

For school social workers, standards of confidentiality are particularly complex, and

confidentiality is never absolute in the school system. For example, a holistic assessment

includes private information collected from a number of sources that often becomes part of a

larger record of the student’s educational needs. Facts are collected from the family, the student,

the school staff and other professionals, and agencies within the community. The student and

family have the right to be informed about what information will be included in the pupil

personnel record, what will be disclosed to members of the pupil personnel team, and what will

be used for multidisciplinary educational evaluations (Raines, 2008).

The school social worker must be cognizant that some members of the multidisciplinary

team are not bound by a professional code of ethics or rules of confidentiality. While school

social workers respect the privacy of their clients and hold in confidence all mental health

information obtained in the course of professional services, informal channels of communication

are usually well developed within the school. Therefore, one needs to exercise careful judgment

in deciding what information will be shared orally or in writing. Further, these decisions are to be

informed by federal, state, and local laws and policies (Raines, 2004).

In the final analysis, however, school social workers and community-based mental health

social work providers are bound by the Code of Ethics 1.07(b), which states, “Social workers

may disclose confidential information when appropriate and with valid consent from a client or a

person legally authorized to consent on behalf of a client”; and 107(c), which states, “. . . In all

instances, social workers should disclose the least amount of confidential information necessary

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to achieve the desired purpose; only information that is directly relevant to the purpose for which

the disclosure is made should be revealed” (NASW, Code of Ethics, 1999).

The Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Providing first-rate mental health services requires multidisciplinary collaboration in the school

system (Ball, Anderson-Butcher, Mellin, & Green, 2010). This obliges school-based and

community-based professionals to exchange information, share expertise, and offer diverse

perspectives for the purpose of achieving a common goal—academic achievement and stable

home-school-community relations. It entails recognition of each other’s competencies and

reliance on each other’s interventions to achieve student well-being. It requires awareness and

acceptance of professional differences. Mutual respect, trust, open communication, and an

understanding of the various professional orientations are prerequisites for successful

collaboration. This process makes mental health services more comprehensive and effective and

enables team members to gain a measure of success and satisfaction (Sabatino, 2002).

It takes time, but it is critical to collect information about each team member, their

professional background, areas of expertise, and interest in mental health services. Explore each

teammate’s perspective on various school problems and how these differ from the traditional

paradigm used in one’s own profession. This work is done to clarify the goals of collaboration

and establish clear roles and assignments. Successful multidisciplinary work, especially in the

area of mental health services, is the result of ongoing, systematic reviews of the collaborative

processes. By examining successes and failures as a part of the review process, the team refines

its work and makes changes that the team believes will help it function more effectively.

Multidisciplinary collaboration in a school system also includes discussion of tasks that

are unique to certain group members and those that may lie outside the group. Include

information from community agencies working with a student’s mental health issues and provide

pertinent information to these providers (with consent) to assist them in their efforts to improve

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student mental health. Develop joint planning sessions and shared decision-making processes.

Applying different professional viewpoints through interdisciplinary team collaboration enriches

the school’s understanding of the child’s difficulty and the role of the school and family

(Sabatino, 2002).

What We Can Do

Valuable School Mental Health Models to Market to the School System

Educators have differing views on whether school social workers or community agencies should

provide mental health services in the schools. Some say expanded school-based and community-

linked mental health services are not consistent with the mission of education and see this

activity taking away time and resources from teaching. Others do not see how school mental

health services are related to classroom instruction and academic performance and, in fact, view

these services as an attempt to infringe upon family rights and values.

Keep in mind and convey to educators that current research indicates that more than 20%

of children and adolescents have mental health problems (American Academy of Pediatrics,

2004). Further, schools have become the de facto mental health service system for them (Early &

Vonk, 2001). Research confirms that the school system is the most common point of entry and

provider of mental health services across all age groups (Farmer, Burns, Phillips, Angold, &

Costello, 2003). In addition, there are numerous federal programs, literature bases, and process

and outcome research studies that show school-based and school-linked mental health services

are central to school success (see Center for School Mental Health Assistance; Center for Mental

Health in the Schools).

School social work mental health services and community-based mental heath resources

must be characterized and marketed as an approach that addresses barriers to healthy child

development, the teaching-learning process, and societal success. It is critical to describe these

services as embedded within the continuum of school interventions that comprise a

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comprehensive and integrated service model meant to serve the school’s instructional programs

(Adelman & Taylor, 2000). Mental health education services help school systems achieve a

deeper understanding of students’ behaviors in school, benefit students’ school performance, and

strengthen social networks in the neighborhood (Hoagwood & Erwin, 1997).

There are classical practice models that have been used to promote mental health in

schoolchildren for many years. Professional staff development through education and training

programs is a traditional method of capacity building that is familiar to educators. Mental health

consultation services have long been employed in school systems under select conditions and

today are more prevalent given access to mental health providers on a daily basis.

RTI and School Mental Health

The diffusion of mental health principles and practices is highly consistent with the RTI

framework of providing school-wide or universal, class-wide or targeted, and individual or direct

services to support school success. Mental health services generally help students get ready for

school by

• supporting protective factors

• strengthening resilience

• addressing social conditions

• imparting knowledge of child and family development

• providing direct services in time of need

• bolstering social and emotional competence (Center for the Study of Social

Policy, 2011)

On the school-wide or universal level, mental health services are directed toward staff

capacity building through effective intra-staff dynamics, team building, and open communication

patterns. Exemplary building-wide mental health services provide information, education, and

support for administrators, teachers, and support staff on how to identify and work with students

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at risk of school failure due to psychosocial, familial, or contextual issues. Accomplished mental

health services assess the strengths and challenges within the school environment that facilitate

or create barriers to an effective learning environment. They also include helping school

personnel and families to access and use assessment and therapeutic mental health services in the

community (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2011).

In the classroom, mental health services take the form of targeted group interventions to

support social-emotional-behavioral school expectations. These services meet the needs of a

group of students who exhibit similar functional needs due to specific internalizing or

externalizing behaviors that interfere with academic performance (Clark & Alvarez, 2010).

Another approach is to develop curriculum units for the classroom that support key social-

emotional learning skills that have been shown to further school success. These units would

include material on self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, goal-directed behavior,

relationship skills, personal responsibility, decision making, and optimistic thinking (LeBuffe,

Shapiro, & Naglieri, 2010).

Finally, individual or direct therapeutic interventions may be provided to students using a

variety of practice models and appropriate school activities. Family work may help them to

better understand and effectively respond to their child’s problematic situation. Consultation with

individual classroom teachers or a multidisciplinary team may help personnel to improve

comprehension of a student’s complex situation, gain emotional mastery, and plan a course of

action geared toward psychological strengths and academic success.

Tools and Practice Examples

Professional Development through Education and Training Programs

The breadth of issues that may confound educational progress is endless, requiring schools,

families, and communities to study new and creative ways to bring about student success.

Professional development through education and training programs is an important way to impart

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information that supports the teaching-learning process. It is a cost-effective, information-

centered method of disseminating specialized concepts and information to expand the school

personnel’s view of a child development and mental health topics.

Teachers understand and are familiar with education and training approaches for learning

new information. It is a method consistent with their professional education. Through lectures,

materials, structured learning experiences, small group discussions, role modeling, seminars, or

workshops, school social workers and mental health providers establish positive collaborative

relationships and expand school personnel’s knowledge about psychosocial problems that

interfere with academic success.

Gallessich (1982) identifies the following characteristics of effective education and

training programs:

• They are carefully designed in collaboration with the school.

• The training objectives are derived from a needs assessment.

• The program is unique to the needs of this particular school or community.

• The program is flexible to meet unexpected needs.

• The program has a clear connection to educational goals and objectives.

• The program is paced so it does not overload, bore, or exhaust the attendees.

• Participation is voluntary.

• The presentation environment is comfortable.

• Norms are developed to support group learning.

• Learning includes activities to develop skills.

• Feedback is solicited.

• The trainer has school support if problems arise.

When students literally grow and develop during their school years, there is limitless

subject matter for training and education programs. Dupper (2002) categorizes topics that easily

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lend themselves to presentations. For teachers, one might focus on issues of externalizing child

behaviors, such as classroom behavior problems, bullying, cyber-bullying, peer harassment,

suspension, and expulsion. Or teachers may puzzle over internalizing child behaviors, such as

anxiety, loneliness, grief, and depression that immobilize a child’s performance in the classroom.

Social problems that affect the home, school, and community include gangs, truancy,

dropouts, homelessness, foster care, abuse and neglect, divorce and separation, substance abuse,

teen sexual behavior, and teen pregnancy and parenting. There are groups of vulnerable

schoolchildren, such as students returning from residential or juvenile justice settings and those

with issues of sexual orientation, for whom it is beneficial to provide information about how to

facilitate their transitions into the school and community.

General education teachers may benefit from a descriptive profile of specific disability

categories because they may be involved in the early detection of a student’s handicapping

condition. Schools may benefit from discussions about the way the staff and student groups

overtly or covertly impede school success. School districts need to explore the ways in which the

parents and communities are involved in the organizational structure of the school. Community

agencies and their staffs may benefit from learning about neurological, cognitive, and motor

disabilities found in schoolchildren and how these impact childhood ecology and school

functioning.

Professional development programs serve a twofold function. First, they let school

personnel see the vast amount of information available to assist them in their roles and tasks.

Second, each program will help remind administrators and teachers of other issues they are

experiencing, which often leads them to invoke further assistance from the school social worker

or mental health practitioner. Education and training programs may also be offered to families

and communities to further an understanding of how the school system may promote school

success. These programs advance collaborative partnership between school personnel, the

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family, and community agencies, who are all involved in efforts to bring about successful

academic and social development.

Mental Health Consultation

Analyses of school social work tasks consistently identify consultation as a central function of

school-based practice (Massat, Constable, McDonald, & Flynn, 2009; Costin, 1969b; Allen-

Meares, 1977; Timberlake, Sabatino, & Hooper, 1982). Mental health consultation in the schools

is one of the most clearly articulated, frequently researched, and significant forms of mental

health services (Caplan & Caplan, 1993; Mannino, MacLennan, & Shore, 1975; Mannino &

Shore, 1980; Sabatino, 2002).

Caplan and Caplan (1993) discuss one type of mental health service, consultee-centered

or teacher-centered case consultation, which is most applicable for school social workers and

community mental health providers helping school personnel handle emotional impairment seen

in the classroom. It is meant to help increase the capacity of school personnel to work more

effectively with an identified mental health problem and to benefit similar students in the future.

In teacher-centered mental health consultation, the goal is to understand the teacher’s

difficulty in handling the situation. The format involves listening to the teacher’s description of

the problem to identify the areas where improvements in handling the school circumstances are

needed. Usually the difficulties revolve around the teacher’s lack of knowledge, skills, or

confidence; or the student difficulty triggers a personal, nonprofessional reaction to the student

of which the teacher is unaware.

In these instances, mental health consultation services take the form of providing

information, techniques, and supports to try new strategies; or, in the case of a teacher’s

nonprofessional and unconscious responses to students’ emotional issues, the mental health

worker siphons off the teacher anxiety onto him- or herself so that it does not negatively affect

the student (Caplan & Caplan, 1993).

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These two practice models are easily marketed to schools by either school social workers

or community-based mental health workers. Professional development through education and

training helps school administrators to build staff capacity and bring the latest knowledge and

research on best practices in treating children and youth mental health problems to school

personnel. Mental health consultation offers early detection and prevention services for

numerous conditions that impact student success and the school climate. They are meant to

increase academic performance, decrease school failure, and improve the quality of the

educational system while being extremely cost effective. In both instances, these strategies help

to establish “comprehensive, multifaceted approaches that help ensure schools are caring and

supportive places that maximize learning and well-being and strengthen students, families,

schools and neighborhoods” (UCLA, 2004, p. 1).

Key Points to Remember

This chapter has offered a brief overview of the current landscape of school social work mental

health and community-based mental health resources, along with pathways to consider for

successfully marketing mental health principles and practices in the school setting.

Some of the most effective strategies for marketing mental health services are:

• helping school administrators and school personnel make the connection between

the prevalence of youth mental health problems; the availability of effective,

evidence-based interventions; and student academic achievement

• marketing mental health programs that serve educational goals using traditional

and contemporary methods

• marketing mental health services so they are organized to easily fit into the RTI

pyramid for school-wide, class-wide, and individual student needs

Resource Centers

Association for Social Media & Higher Education: http://www.socialmediahighered.com/

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Center for School Mental Health Assistance, University of Maryland School of Medicine:

csmh.umaryland.edu

Center for Mental Health in the School, UCLA Mental Health Project, University of California at

Los Angeles: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu

Coalition for Community Schools, Washington, DC: www.communityschools.org

International Social Marketing Association: http://www.i-socialmarketing.org/

International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools, University of

Maryland: www.intercamhs.org

National Assembly on School-Based Health Care, Washington, DC: www.nasbhc.org

National Association of Social Workers, Washington, DC, School Social Work Specialty

Section: Linking schools, students, community, and family: www.socialworkers.org

School Social Work Association of America, Sumner, WA: www.sswaa.org

The Community Toolbox, Part M, Work Group for Community Health and Development, The

University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA: http://ctb.ku.edu/tools

Weinreich Communications, Los Angeles, CA: www.social-marketing.com

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