1. Thomasville City Schools
SCHOOL BASED MENTAL HEALTH

2. Providing Access Where Students Are
Out of youth that access treatment, % of them do so in school
Adolescents with access to school-based health clinics are 10x more likely to make a visit related to mental health or substance use compared to adolescents without a school-based clinic
So…we know the practices and programs exist, it is just getting students access to them. Our argument, is that students will have the highest probabiity of accessing these supports in the school setting and the data appear to back that up.
Kaplan et al., 1998

3. Number of Current Students Served
Lorven: Total 54 students - 35 TPS, 9 LDES, 6 TMS, 4 THS
TCS SBT: Total 68 Students – 12 TPS, 14 LDES, 21 TMS, 21 THS
Total number of TCS students receiving therapy services at the schools - 122
Numbers are as of 11/21

4. Impact of Accessing Support in Schools
Access to school-based mental health services is linked to:
Improved academic outcomes
Enhanced physical and psychological safety
Improved behaviors in the school and decreased disciplinary actions
Less school violence
Reduced dropout
Michael, et al., 2013; Ballard, Sander, & Kilmes-Dougan, 2014; Center for School Mental Health, 2014

5. School Mental Health Initiative
Summer 2015
a partnership of concerned citizens with the collective purpose of ensuring that all children in North Carolina have access to mental health and substance use services
Mission:
It is the mission of this partnership to provide implementation and monitoring support to ensure that public school students in North Carolina have equitable access to a full continuum of high-quality and well-coordinated socio- emotional/behavioral health services.
Note:
The group began as a partnership of concerned citizens. The work was not sponsored by a particular agency. DPI provided a meeting space and facilitation support, however, this was not intended (and has never been) a DPI initiative.

6. State Board Policy
  Each Local Education Agency (LEA)/charter school shall develop and implement a plan for assessing and improving upon the effectiveness of existing supports for the mental health and substance use needs of its student population.  The plan must address a continuum of services that consists of the following elements: (i) universal prevention; (ii) early intervention services; and (iii) referral, treatment, and re-entry, as further described below.  The plan shall provide for stakeholder engagement to achieve a coordinated system of support in the school and community for students and their families.  The plan must be approved by the local governing board and reviewed at least every three years.
Development of the LEA plan for assessing and improving upon the effectiveness of existing supports for the mental health and substance use needs of its student population, including plans for staff training, will occur during the school year.  In the school year LEA plan implementation and three-year review cycle will commence

7. Continuum
Public schools, families, community providers, managed care organizations, will jointly create a plan for meeting the mental health and substance use needs of all NC public school students. The continuum will include:
Education of staff and students pre-K-12
Promotion of healthy school communities
Universal screening
Supplemental supports
Intensive services for students and families
To ensure accountability, the plan will include a system to evaluate the quality of mental health and substance use services and measure student outcomes.

8. Wicked Systemic Problems: Mental Health Problems / Disorders Can Be Prevented Through School-Based Programs
Core skill building programs (e.g., social awareness and problem-solving programs) and changing school ecology (e.g., promoting pro-social behavior through reinforcement and education to reduce stigma) enhance resilience and reduce risk factors (World Health Organization, 2004)
The likely etiology of mental health disorder is multifaceted, but there are a number of risk factors that can be reduced and a number of protective factors than can be enhance at each layer of support.
So, we can take a moment to name a few of these practices that have an evidence base behind them for enhancing protective factors or reducing riskfactors.