If the programs prove valuable, the nonprofits expect local, state, and federal funding streams to take over. The bilingual professionals were able to give parents insight into what their children needed, help them interact with school administrators, and show them how to navigate insurance for outside clinic care. The grants also paid for at least one bilingual professional at each school to help parents connect with their children’s care.
Collaboration with external services
While some studies measured knowledge and attitudes separately, a single measure of mental health literacy was used here in a manner similar to other researchers 14,21,22,23. This trend was also noted in several of the review articles and Mellor found that in the majority of studies (13 of 17), program effectiveness was measured by a survey developed to reflect the specific program content 19,20. This strategy is similar to other researchers who developed assessments specifically for Health departments and school contact tracing the program under study 13,15,16, Mental Illness Education, MIE; Breaking the Silence; Ending the Silence. A mental health literacy survey reflecting the content of the Coming Up for AIR presentation was developed by the researchers.
Funding Statement
- A cluster randomised controlled trial to determine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of classroom-based cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in reducing symptoms of depression in high-risk adolescents.
- Teachers learn to balance academic responsibilities with emotional support, ensuring they can respond effectively to students in distress while maintaining appropriate boundaries.
- “So it helps because when I explain something to a parent, it’s on equal terms, in a better way than they would hear it from the school.”
For example, a program might include social-emotional learning (SEL) and offer youth mental health counseling for a more comprehensive approach to total well-being. There’s an urgent need to improve student mental health, so students thrive emotionally, socially, and academically. The main goal is to develop a successful framework to distribute evidence-based interventions to the target groups in preschool, school (and clinical settings). For instance, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has been shown to increase depression symptoms in adolescents, especially in those at a high risk for depression, and in younger students 21,22. In this context, it is especially important to consider whether a given intervention could have a harmful effect on certain subgroups of students.
SCHOOL RESOURCES
Youth often respond to questions of whether they have sought out or met with a mental health professional. To our knowledge this is the first study to investigate the impact of prior exposure on current program effectiveness. While the data suggesting no interaction is strong for gender, there are mixed findings for grade level differences in program effectiveness. Consistent with prior research it is expected that boys will have lower scores on pre-measures of mental health literacy compared with girls. In a younger group of 12–14 year-olds, evidence was found for program effectiveness on a combined measure of knowledge and stereotypes with no difference in gains by gender.
Line graph of pre- and post- mental health literacy scores by gender. Pre-and post-mental health literacy scores are reported in Table 2 along with ANOVA results for the main effects and interactions. A series of repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to determine program effectiveness overall as well as main effects of gender, grade level, and prior exposure. Grade level was operationally defined as middle school (grades 6, 7, and 8) and high school (grades 9, 10, 11, and 12). Student identification numbers could not be traced to student names by the research team.