2020 California Student Mental Wellness Conference

Schools have the capacity to be change agents in the accessibility of youth mental health services. Research has shown that one in five youth will need support with mental health, but, only about half of these students receive treatment. One way to overcome these barriers is through School-Based Mental Health Support. There is a growing body of research that supports the social-emotional benefits of having school-based mental health supports within schools. Schools with good mental health care have seen reduced office referrals and suspensions alongside encouraging increases in grade performance.
While it’s ideal to be able to provide these supports within schools, there continues to be barriers within schools to provide access to care, especially at the Elementary level. A few common barriers include: weak general education counseling supports, schools that will only provide counseling as an IEP service, a lack of resources/personnel, and low administrator support. In this presentation I plan to showcase the development and implementation of a micro-system of mental health services that has been successful within our schools that can serve all students, within a resource-limited context. Through action-research data collection, this “Wellness Center” system has proven to be effective. In addition, participants will walk away with resources for themselves and teachers, ideas of how to support all student mental health wellbeing, and have opportunities to collaborate with one another.