Abstract
Investing in school mental health programs has the potential to improve youths' access to mental health services. Barriers to the implementation of school mental health programs include limited workforce capacity, competing priorities, and lack of coordinated care. The current paper describes the history, development, and key components of the Behavioral Health Team (BHT) model that was established to promote implementation of school mental health programming. The BHT is a multi-disciplinary team designed to maximize resources and collaboration, provide early identification of students with behavioral health needs, and match and connect students to the indicated interventions using data-informed decision making. BHTs are tasked with selecting appropriate interventions, assuring fidelity of implementation, monitoring student progress and making adjustments based on data to enhance the sustainability and dissemination of evidence-based prevention and intervention in schools. The paper reviews two case examples to illustrate how this model has been applied both within a large urban school district and a medium-sized suburban school district. Results demonstrate that district support facilitates sustainability and expansion of the BHT model over time. Schools implementing this model demonstrate improvement in implementation of the BHT key components.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1239-1258 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Psychology in the Schools |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2022 |
Funding
We would like to acknowledge our partners at Chicago Public Schools who contributed to the development and expansion of the Behavioral Health Team Model. In particular, we would like to posthumously acknowledge Hellen Antonopoulos, LCSW, former Executive Director of the Office of Social and Emotional Learning at Chicago Public Schools, for her substantial contributions to the BHT model and for her dedication to BHT dissemination and sustainability. We are also grateful to the Behavioral Health Team leads and team members from Chicago Public Schools and Joliet Township High School District 204 who provided student supports via the Behavioral Health Team model. The Institutional Review Board at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago reviewed this study and deemed it exempt from IRB review. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The work described was funded in part by the Polk Bros. Foundation.
Keywords
- behavioral health
- multi-tiered system of supports
- school mental health
- teaming
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
