Increasing Access to Mental Health Services: A Data-Based Approach to Program Development
Summary
It is a startling fact that fewer than eight
percent of all students with emotional disturbance in the largest state (based
on student enrollment) receive school-based mental health services. Given this low rate of services for one type
of disability, what can be said for the state of mental health services for all
students that need them? A primary goal
for school psychological services is to achieve a balance between meeting the
academic learning needs of children with their often equally important mental
health needs. For more than thirty
years school psychologists have striven for a broader role than simply identifying
disabilities (Reschly & Wilson, 1995).
Current approaches to accountability in schools rely almost exclusively
on measuring the extent to which students’ academic learning needs are being
met (Education Week, 2001). Given the current perspectives on using data
to ensure accountability, emotional appeals to provide mental services to
children in school will not achieve success.
How can school psychologists use current approaches to school
accountability to establish a rationale for comprehensive school-based mental
health services?
The purpose of this mini-skill workshop is to develop specific skills in using
available data to reinforce the need for school-based mental health services
and to evaluate their effectiveness.
Participants will become aware of current approaches in Focused Monitoring
that support data-based accountability and the skills needed to develop local
processes that argue for and support implementation of mental health
services.
Successful precedent for a data-based
approach to accountability for school-based mental health services exists at
the national, state, and local level.
This mini-skills workshop will build on the experiences of one local
school district and three states’ efforts to increase school-based mental
health services. Participants will
examine the process and products used by a local school system in one state to
establish and expand school-based mental health services. Participants will also review the data-based
approach used by a state to support the priority of increasing school-based
mental health services. These examples
will give participants in the mini-skills workshop ideas that they can adapt
and apply in their own settings.
Accessibility to data is a key component of
developing an argument for school-based mental health services. National data has been compiled and
disseminated regarding both student needs and system capacity (U. S. Department
of Education, 2000). These data are
continuous and updated at least annually making their use as background
material useful in making a persuasive argument at the local level. Some states currently collect data on
services and personnel related to school-based mental health services. For example, California, Florida, New
Mexico, and Louisiana, among others, have individual student data bases that
report related services on at least an annual basis. These data can be disaggregated at local system and school site
levels and are accessible by LEA personnel.
Examples will be offered of how local school systems have used these
databases to both establish a rationale for school-based mental health services
and maintain accountability for provision of services.
Expected learner Outcomes: On completion of the mini-skill workshop,
participants will be able to (1) access available national and state data, (2)
follow a checklist to determine the availability and types of local data, (3)
develop local data systems, and (4) use all these data to promote mental health
services at local levels. Participants
will also receive a handout including several examples of local school system
programs and how they routinely disseminate accountability information on
school-based mental health services.