1. Alberta Coalition for Healthy School Communities Conference September, 2006 Knowledge-Sharing Session on School Mental Health Promotion

2. Who is Here? Your name, sector, role, special interest in being here.

3. Session Framework Dialogue-Everyone will have a valuable contribution to make. Present a starting point for discussion today and then see where it takes us within targeted topic areas. Discuss how this dialogue might encourage others like it, leading to ACTION, in Alberta.

4. Today’s Prevailing Principles Whoever is here are the right people for today’s discussion. Whatever results we get are the best we can achieve through today’s opportunity.

5. WHY? Should we be talking about the connection between schools and mental health?

6. What we know…in Canada (1) Kirby Report Children’s mental health most neglected piece of Canadian health care system- Kirby Stigma of mental illness, esp. in children, leads to service “orphan of the orphan”.- Kirby There is no “voice” for people, esp. children, with mental illness

7. What we know…in Canada (2) Kirby- Service Delivery Statistics Estimated need for child and adolescent psychiatrists=1 per 4000 youth. (Cdn.Academy of Child and Adolescent Psych.) Should have 2000 psychiatrists in Canada. Currently 400. Ontario has 1 for 32,000 youth, Quebec has 1 for 11,000, other provinces similar 10 new graduates annually Underfunded and underprovided community-based and preventive services

8. What we know…in Canada(3) Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health: –Canada lags behind many other western countries that are making mental health a national priority...it takes national leadership to confront the fact that now 5/10 of leading causes of disability are now due to mental illness.

9. What we know…in Alberta (1) Key Issues (Advancing the Mental Health Agenda, April 2004) Service capacity and gaps, especially for children Stigmatization and inequity-creates significant barriers to treatment Funding inadequacy Need for integrated service delivery Need for decentralized, multi-provider service environment Need to address organizational barriers to integrating services

10. What we know…in Alberta (2) Student Health Partnership is only current vehicle to provide school-based mental health programming to students. SHP funding envelope represents approx. 1% of jurisdictional educational budgets, and must meet mental health, speech-language, occupational therapy, other health needs impacting learning potential within the school setting. Service outcomes must be directly related to meeting academic goals.

11. What else do we know? Your research and/or experience.

12. What is school mental health promotion? –From your perspective, what would be the critical components to a definition of school mental health promotion?

13. INTERCAMHS Working Definition – (International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Schools) Whole School Approach  Mental Health Promotion  Intervention  Treatment

14. Working Definition(2) Supported by:  Policies  Skills for Social Emotional Learning  Healthy psycho-social school environment  Access to services in the school or in the broader community.

15. Working Definition (3) Full participation of teachers, students, families and community agencies  Informed dialogue  Collaboration among people and programs  Throughout all phases of the continuum.

16. Working Definition (4) Supported by principles that:  Value diversity and inclusiveness  Create conditions for empowerment  Support school organizational development

17. Working Definition (5) Critical Role of Evidence to guide training, policy, research and practice across:  Universal mental health promotion (resources and programs for all students)  Selective interventions (prevention programs for students presenting risk factors for problems)  Indicated interventions (early interventions to students exhibiting emotional and behavioral problems)  Treatment (more intensive services for established emotional/behavioral problems.)

18. Integration -What is it?

19. SCHOOL BASED MENTAL HEALTH INTEGRATION-Service Continuum Promotion Prevention Early Intervention Treatment Spec. Services

20. Integration-Critical Factors Shared Agenda Infrastructure Policy Practice Training/Capacity Development Research

21. SCHOOL BASED MENTAL HEALTH INTEGRATION-Framework Components Promotion Prevention Early Intervention Treatment Spec. Services Shared Agenda Infrastructure Policy Practice Training/Capacity Development Research

22. What else?

23. OPPORTUNITIES

24. CONTACTS Gloria Wells: wellsgl@shaw.cawellsgl@shaw.ca International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Schools: www.intercamhs.org www.intercamhs.org Creating Connections Symposium: www.creatingconnections2006.org www.creatingconnections2006.org