1. DSB Ontario North East Mental Health Team and Pathways to Care
Early Intervention
Prevention
Early Identification
DSB Ontario North East Mental Health Team and Pathways to Care

2. Promoting Student Well-being
OUR MENTAL HEALTH TEAM
Includes a Mental Health Leader, a District Social Worker, Child and Youth Workers as well as a Mental Health and Addictions Nurse.
Works directly with educators, students, parents/guardians and community partners to deliver promotion, prevention and intervention services within the school setting.

3. GOALS
To provide and coordinate mental health and well-being programs that address early identification.
To increase the accessibility of mental health services for children and families in need.
To provide mental health and well-being consultations for teachers and other school staff.
To increase collaborative partnerships between the school and community to promote mental health and well-being.

4. SERVICES
 The team will deliver and coordinate a broad spectrum of essential mental health services including:
promotion programs,
early identification services,
individual or group preventative interventions,
consultations with teachers and guardians,
progress monitoring, and
liaison services that triangulate the student, school and community partners.

5. Ways the Team Will Help…
Mental Health Team members will not work as therapists and duplicate the work of community mental health providers.
Their role is to support educators in:
Creating caring schools and classrooms
Building social/emotional learning skills
Helping to identify students in need
Reducing stigma
Preventing mental health problems in high risk groups
Preparing Behavioral Management Plans for students in need
Building pathways to care
It should be stressed that there is no expectation that the MH team will become mental health professionals, but they can help with early identification, provide knowledge of the services available in the community, the processes and procedures to access those services, provide prevention services, monitoring and liaison services with collaborative partners. They will be responsible for preparing Behavioral Management Plans for students referred to their services with the exception of students that are in self-contained classrooms. In self-contained classrooms, the teacher of the classroom will take the lead in preparing the plans

6. (Targeted prevention)
Think in Tiers
Clinical intervention for students with mental illness occurs largely in partnership with community and health settings
All
(caring classrooms, mental health promotion, social-emotional learning instruction, stigma reduction)
Some
(Targeted prevention)
Few
Our focus, is to create mentally healthy environments for students and to build skills amongst students who are vulnerable through prevention programming
Here is a depiction of the familiar Learning For All graphic, applied to student mental health and well-being. Note that our role in school boards is most focused on promoting mental health and well-being for ALL students, through universal approaches that are beneficial for all children and youth. We can also help to identify SOME students with, or at risk for developing, mental health problems and can help with targeted skill-building and with referrals to mental health support teams. With the assistance of professionals with mental health expertise, we can lend support to the FEW students who require more intensive intervention while at school, ideally working in partnership with involved community agencies. In school boards, our primary focus should be on mental health promotion and prevention activities.

7. Mental Health Promotion Clinical Intervention
System of Care
Mental Health Promotion
Prevention
Intervention
Clinical Intervention
Promotion
Community
It is clear that we need to work from an integrated, systems of care model in order to ensure that we provide support all children and youth in our community. The particular pathways to support need to be locally determined, but the main thing is that pathways are clear and articulated so that students receive the right help at the right time. In most cases District School Boards will have a role to play in articulating clear pathways for schools to make use of.
School Districts

8. Tier level, Percentage of Students
Requiring Support
Mental Health Team
Intervention Roles
Tier 1
100% of students
Tier 1
Mental Health Promotion
Education & promotion with stigma reduction
Social-Emotional Learning groups
Positive behavioral support consultations with parents and teachers
CYWs were trained in September to deliver Roots of Empathy. They will be responsible for working in collaboration with school administrators to ensure students within all our schools receive equal access to the program. This means they may deliver the program themselves and when this is not an option, work with community partners to ensure schools have access to the program.

9. Tier level, Percentage of Students
Requiring Support
Mental Health Team
Intervention Roles
Tier 2
5-15% of students
Tier 2
Mental Health Prevention
Early identification
Mental health screening
Individual and small group intervention
Consultation with teachers/parents
Behavior Management Plans with emphasis on social skills and classrooms strategies
Progress Monitoring
CYWs will be responsible work collaboratively with school administrators to deliver or organize the delivery of key prevention programs such as: Akwe:go, Girls Talk, Healthy Living Champions, Triple P, Tucker the Turtle, Walking the Path, Street Wolfe, Youth Gambling

10. Tier level, Percentage of Students
Mental Health Team
Intervention Roles
Tier level, Percentage of Students
Requiring Support
Tier 3
1-5% of students
Tier 3
Mental Health Intervention
Intervention, liaison and monitoring services that triangulate students with the school and community service agencies

11. Mental Health Promotion Clinical Intervention
System of Care
Mental Health Promotion
Prevention
Intervention
Clinical Intervention
Promotion
Community
It is clear that we need to work from an integrated, systems of care model in order to ensure that we provide support to all children and youth in our community. The particular pathways to support need to be locally determined, but the main thing is that pathways are clear and articulated so that students receive the right help at the right time. In many cases the Mental Health Team will have a role to play in articulating clear pathways for schools to make use of.
School Districts

12. Pathways to services NON EMERGENCY Scenario EMERGENCY Scenario
EMERGENCY Scenario
Student identified in need of mental health services
Principal / Special Education Resource Teacher / Guidance Counsellor complete referral form and submit it electronically to the Mental Health Team
Intake Services reviews and triages referral
DSW
Referral to external agency
IBI transition planning
CYW
Promotion
Prevention
Intervention and liaison
MHAN
Hospital transitions
Medication consult
System navigation
Active Suicide Attempt
Call 911 and Parent / Guardian
Potentially Suicidal student
In school intervention by ASIST trained staff
Student identified as Not Suicidal but in need of support
Student identified as Suicidal
Call Parent / Guardian
and
NEOFACS Intake
for
Mobile Crisis Response
Pathways to services

13. HOW IS A STUDENT REFERRED TO THE PROGRAM?
Parents with a concern for their child’s health are encouraged to speak to their child’s teacher or school administration about the referral process.
Once parental consent is received school Administrators, Special Education Resource Teachers, Guidance Counselors or community partners complete a referral for Mental Health Services and submit it electronically to the Mental Health Team under the Mental Health and Wellness tab of the board website.

14. BENEFITS TO THE STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS
The benefits are immeasurable – early identification leads to early intervention. Early intervention leads to fewer missed classes, improved self-worth and greater achievement.

15. THANK YOU!
We hope that you found this a useful introduction to the role of the Mental Health Team.
Should you have questions, your Mental Health Leader is available to provide ongoing support and leadership to your school team.