Building an International Network for Mental Health in Schools

School mental health promotion and intervention: Experiences from four nations

All around the world, partnerships among schools and other youth-serving systems are promoting more comprehensive school-based mental health services. This article describes the development of international networks for school mental health (SMH) including the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (INTERCAMHS) and the more recent School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange (SMHILE). In conjunction with World Conferences on Mental Health Promotion, SMHILE has held pre-conference and planning meetings and has identified five critical themes for the advancement of global SMH: 1) Cross-sector collaboration in building systems of care; 2) meaningful youth and family engagement; 3) workforce development and mental health literacy; 4) implementation of evidence-based practices; and 5) ongoing monitoring and quality assurance. In this article we provide general background on SMH in four nations, two showing strong progress (the United States and Canada), one showing moderate progress (Norway), and one beginning the work (Liberia). Following general background for each country, actions in relation to the SMHILE themes are reviewed. The article concludes with plans and ideas for future global collaboration towards advancement of the SMH field.

Helping Teachers to Help Children Living with a Mentally Ill Parent

The material presented here is based on a pilot European project (Daphne Project, 2000/EU funding, collaboration of Greece and England) regarding parental mental illness and children‘s welfare and needs1.The presentation focuses upon the responses of a group of teachers working in primary education in relation to identi-.cation issues and assessment needs regarding children who live with a mentally ill parent. The results showed that although the teachers are able to identify risks and protective factors in the cases of a parental mental illness, there is a lack of early identi.cation mechanisms in the school setting and an absence of a shared understanding of relevant issues across services and agencies. The results are discussed in relation to school-based prevention initiatives that empower teachers to feel that they contribute to change in their schools as well as in their own practice in the classroom.