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Advancing Meaningful Youth and Family Engagement in School Mental HealthMark D. Weist, University of South Carolina
Christina Pate and Leora Wolf-Prusan, WestED
Hunter Institute of Mental Health, July 13, 2017
“Expanded” School Mental Health (SMH)
Full continuum of effective mental health promotion and intervention for students in general and special education
Reflecting a “shared agenda” involving school-family-community system partnerships
Collaborating community professionals (not outsiders) augmentthe work of school-employed staff
Advantages
Improved access
Improved early identification/intervention
Reduced barriers to learning, and achievement of valued outcomes
WHEN DONE WELL
But SMH programs and services continue to develop in an ad hoc
manner, and
LACK AN IMPLEMENTATION STRUCTURE
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports(PBIS)
In 23,000 plus schools
Decision making framework to guide selection and implementation of best practices for improving academic and behavioral functioning
Data based decision making
Measurable outcomes
Evidence-based practices
Systems to support effective implementation
Advantages
Promotes effective decision making
Reduces punitive approaches
Improves student behavior
Improves student academic performance
WHEN DONE WELL
But Many schools implementing PBIS lack resources and struggle to
implement effective interventions at Tiers 2 and 3
View student issues through lens of “behavior”
POSITIVE BEHAVIOR INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS AND
SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH
School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange (SMHILE)
Emphasis on building collective knowledge on leadership and implementation foundations for effective prevention and mental health promotion in schools
SMHILE: Five Critical Themes for the Advancement of Global School Mental Health
1) Cross-sector collaboration in building systems of care
2) Meaningful youth and family engagement
3) Workforce development and mental health literacy
4) Implementation of evidence-based practices
5) Ongoing monitoring and quality assurance
Interactive Exercise: Your Experience in School
• Then, answer these questions:
• For better or worse…
• What made a difference to you when you were in a school?• What motivated you to learn? What de-motivated you?
• What adults made you know you mattered?• How did you know? What did the adults do to make you
feel that way?
• Other things that made a difference?
First, turn to a
person near you
that you don’t
know and
introduce
yourself
• Name
• Organization
• Role
Cultural Inflection Point
Adult/Staff Student/Family
Discussion
What efforts are you engaged in to improve family engagement in schools? In school mental health efforts?
What is working?
What challenges are being experienced?
Definition of FE
Family engagement is an active, interactive, dynamic, and ongoing process in which family members and key stakeholders engage as equal partners in decision-making, planning, and implementation to support children and adolescents across settings
Key Themes
Realities
Aspirations
Outcomes
General Recommendations
Recommendations for Tiers 1, 2 and 3
Relevant Policies/Resources (mostly in US)
Realities
Most contact from schools to families is negative
Families waiting for supportive communication and actions from schools that often does not come
Family engagement remains important, but often declines as students get older
Structural issues of high schools (e.g., walled off departments, emphasis on content, academic pressure) mitigate against FE
THOUGHTS? TRUE IN YOUR WORLD OR NO?
Realities (2)
Challenging behavior associated with reduced FE, which in turn worsens behavior and contributes to negative spiraling
FE may be limited to children and youth in special education, and tokenism and/or adversarial relationships are common
School systems often do not support families with diverse needs and schedules that are not aligned with a typical school schedule
Need to move beyond “random acts of engagement” by schools
THOUGHTS?
Realities (3)
School-centric stance toward FE (e.g., one way communication, “getting parent buy-in”)
Power differential between schools and families -- real and frequently demonstrated
Frequent cop-outs to avoid FE (e.g., “families too busy,” “they can’t review data,” “they’re not really interested”)
THOUGHTS?
Aspirations
Need for practices that are “respectful, flexible, and responsive” and treat families with “dignity”
Students and family members should be “full, equal and meaningful participants” with school and district personnel in all efforts
We are “now at a cultural inflection point that recognizes the power of service recipients (students and families), shifting the view from them being receptacles of care to empowered partners in their own wellness and accomplishment”
THOUGHTS?
Outcomes/Logic Model/ Challenge
FE improves student connectedness to school; MTSS efforts; teacher effectiveness; student social, emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning; and contributes to student graduation and subsequent success
There are significant individual and societal costs for students not doing well in school; hence, there are significant individual and societal costs for not focusing on FE in schools
DISCUSSION: GIVEN THESE FACTS, WHY DO EFFORTS TO PROMOTE FE IN SCHOOLS AND SMH REMAIN SO LIMITED?
General Recommendations
With families defined in the broadest sense involve them significantly and as partners in work at all tiers
Develop and implement accountability mechanisms to assure all school staff are involved in effective FE
Consider common barriers to FE and with families develop strategies to overcome them
Use plain, jargon-free language and assure that messages associated with SMH make sense to everyday life
THOUGHTS?
Tier 1 Recommendations
Families should be strongly involved in all school-wide functions, events and celebrations
Create a culture of families being welcome in the school throughout the day
Having frequent positively-focused communication with all families and genuine two-way exchanges of information
Have pictures of families from diverse cultures in classrooms; develop a parent information center with a range of materials in relevant languages; have family leaders wear “ask me about SMH” buttons
Tier 1 Recommendations (2)
Include diverse information on promoting student mental health and wellness, and common emotional/behavioral concerns in different formats and locations in the school
Conduct mental health promotion workshops for families
Broadly publicize school events for families, and have clear signs and markers to help them get there
With family input, develop and broadly disseminate school/community resource guides, and calendars of relevant events
THOUGHTS?
Tier 2 and 3 Recommendations
Strive to eliminate deficit language in describing student/family concerns
Actively involvement family members in developing Tier 2 and 3 supports and interventions
Involve families in problem solving and developing strategies to address challenging behavior
Openly discuss barriers to families receiving intervention, and problem-solve on methods to reduce barriers
THOUGHTS?
What is Student Voice?
Youth leadership
Youth participation
Youth engagement
Youth decision-making
Youth empowerment
OTHERS?
Many relevant constructs
Ladder of Student Involvement
Interactive Discussion
Using Hart’s Ladder, what scores would you give to the schools, SMH programs you have a connection to?
Why are the scores so low?
What would it take to move the scores up to 5 or above?
How can positive approaches to encourage student voice be amplified?
Student Listening Circle
Advocacy Organizations
In the US, there are a number of family and youth advocacy organizations, e.g., Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (FFCMH), National Alliance on Mental Illness, Youth Move, Mental Health America
FFCMH Motto: “Nothing about us without us”
QUESTIONS: What are the key family and youth advocacy organizations in New Castle? How do schools typically connect to these organizations? How could these connections be enhanced?
Interactive Discussion
How are your efforts helping to move youth and family engagement (YFE) strategies beyond “tokenism”?
In your country or region, what are the prominent practice, research and policy initiatives occurring to advance meaningful YFE in school mental health (SMH)?
How can SMHILE promote collaboration within and across nations to advance YFE in SMH?
Importance of Relationships in Change
There will never be enough laws, policies, processes,
documents, etc. to force change
Change is best realized through the relationships we build with those people and groups that have a common interest toward solving a persistent problem or seizing an opportunity
Bill East, Joanne Cashman, National Association of State Directors of Special Education
Systematic Agenda
Relationships
Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, 2007
Leading by Convening
Creating conditions for groups with common interests to be actively engaged and move from discussion to dialogue to collaboration to policy improvement and enhanced resources
Joanne Cashman & Bill East, National Association of State Directors of Special Education (2014)
Communities of Practice
“Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (p.4)
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W.M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School
PCORI
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
PCORI believes that combining patients and other stakeholders’ individual experiences and passion for improving healthcare quality with the expertise of researchers will result in research that better meets the needs of the entire healthcare community
April 27-28, 2017
Myrtle Beach, SC
Moving Toward Exemplary and High Impact School Behavioral Health
• Improving Collaboration among Families, Educators, Clinicians and other Youth-System Staff
• School-Wide Approaches for Prevention and Intervention
• Improving the Quality of Services
• Increasing Implementation Support
• Enhancing Cultural Humility and Reducing Racial, Ethnic, and Other Disparities
SSBHC Next Conference:Myrtle Beach,April 18-20, 2018
Community for Family Engagement in Education (COFEE)
Build a community of practice focused on developing research, practice and policy agendas related to FEE in schools
Identify and further develop model demonstration sites and publicize the experience of these sites
Initial meeting, September 13-14, 2017, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thank you!
Mark Weist
Christina Pate
Leora Wolf-Prusan
