Mental Health in Schools

This visionary and comprehensive book presents a new approach to school-based mental health, including how to better serve students and maximize resources through coordinated programs.

Howard S. Adelman is professor of psychology and codirector of the School Mental Health Project and its federally supported National Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. He began his professional career as a remedial classroom teacher in 1960. In 1973, he returned to UCLA in the role of professor of psychology and also was the director of the Fernald School and Laboratory until 1986.
In 1986, Adelman and Linda Taylor established the School Mental Health Project at UCLA. The two have worked together for over 30 years with a constant focus on improving how schools and communities address a wide range of psychosocial and educational problems experienced by children and adolescents. Over the years, they have worked together on major projects focused on dropout prevention, enhancing the mental health facets of school-based health centers, and developing comprehensive, school-based approaches for students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Their work has involved them in schools and communities across the country. The current focus of their work is on policies, practices, and large-scale systemic reform initiatives to enhance school, community, and family connections to address barriers to learning and promote healthy development. This work includes codirecting a national Center for Mental Health in Schools, which facilitates the National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support.

Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Part I. The Field of Mental Health in Schools
1. Mental Health in Schools: Past and Present
2. About Moving Toward a Comprehensive Approach
Part II. Three Major Issues Confronting the Field
3. Labeling, Screening, and Over-Pathologizing
4. Evidence-Based Practices in Schools: Concerns About Fit and Implementation
5. Social Control Versus Engagement in Learning: A Mental Health Perspective
Part III. Moving Forward: School-Based Strategies for Addressing Behavior, Learning, and Emotional Problems
6. A Period of Transition and Possible Transformation
7. Strategies for Embedding Mental Health in School Improvement
8. Social and Emotional Learning and Promotion of Mental Health: Implications for Addressing Behavior Problems
9. Challenges and Opportunities for Promoting Mental Health in the Classroom
10. Mental Health Assistance for Students at School
11. Focusing on the Well-Being of School Staff
Part IV. Policy and Systemic Change for Moving Forward
12. New Directions
13. Collaboration: Working Together to Move Forward and Enhance Impact
14. Show Us the Data: Using and Extending the Research Base
15. Addressing Systemic Change
Call to Action: Moving Forward
Appendix: Leadership at a School Site for an Enabling or Learning Supports Component
References
Index