Mental Health Issues in the Schools

Carl E. Paternite & Mark D. Weist & Robert Burke & Paul Flaspohler

School mental health programs and services in the United States have grown rapidly, facilitated by the recommendations of important initiatives such as the U.S. Public Health Service, 2000; the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003; and the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on School Health, 2004. Schools offer access as a point of engagement with youth to address their academic and mental health needs; school mental health programs and services offer potential for reduced stigma for help seeking, increased generalization and maintenance of treatment gains, enhanced capacity for prevention and mental health promotion efforts, and ecologically grounded roles for clinicians. School mental health is an emerging field with challenges confronted at many levels. Figure 1 , an adaptation of a template proposed by Weist, Paternite, and Adelsheim and first published by Flaspohler, Anderson-Butcher, Paternite, Weist, and Wandersman, presents interrelated actions to support policies, infrastructures, resources, and practices to ...

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