Open AccessSchool Mental Health: The Impact of State and Local Capacity-Building Training
Author(s) -
Sharon H. Stephan,
Carl E. Paternite,
Lindsey Grimm,
Laura Hurwitz
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of education policy and leadership
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1555-5062
DOI - 10.22230/ijepl.2014v9n7a516
Subject(s) - capacity building , mental health , scale (ratio) , baseline (sea) , medical education , service (business) , training (meteorology) , psychology , political science , medicine , nursing , public relations , business , marketing , geography , psychiatry , cartography , meteorology , law
Despite a growing number of collaborative partnerships between schools and community-based organizations to expand school mental health (SMH) service capacity in the United States, there have been relatively few systematic initiatives focused on key strategies for large-scale SMH capacity building with state and local education systems. Based on a framework of ten critical factors for capacity building, as well as existing best practices, two case studies were utilized to develop a replicable capacity-building model to advance interagency SMH development. Seventy education and mental health stakeholders from two selected states participated in baseline assessments of skill com-petency and critical factor implementation followed by two-day trainings (one in each state); 29 (41%) of the participants also completed a six month follow-up assessment. Targeted competencies increased significantly for participants from both states, with large effect sizes (d = 2.05 and 2.56), from pre- to post-training. Participant reports of critical factor implementation increased significantly for one of the two states (t[15] = -6.40, p < .001, d = 1.77). Results inform specific training recommendations for stakeholders and collaborative teams, as well as policy implications to support future development of SMH service capacity.