William Dikel - Student Mental Health: A Guide For Teachers, School and District Leaders, School Psychologists and Nurses, Social Workers, Counselors, and Parents

A GUIDE FOR

TEACHERS, SCHOOL AND DISTRICT LEADERS,
SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS AND NURSES,
SOCIAL WORKERS, COUNSELORS, AND PARENTS

UPDATED AND EXPANDED

WILLIAM DIKEL, MD

Note to Readers: Models and/or techniques described in this volume are illustrative or are included for general informational purposes only; neither the publisher nor the author(s) can guarantee the efficacy or appropriateness of any particular recommendation in every circumstance

Copyright 2020, 2014 by William Dikel

Previous edition published as THE TEACHERS GUIDE TO STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH

All rights reserved

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Cover design: Lauren Graessle

Cover art: Ekely / Getty Images

Production manager: Katelyn MacKenzie

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Dikel, William, author.

Title: Student mental health : a guide for teachers, school and district leaders, school psychologists and nurses, social workers, counselors, and parents / William Dikel.

Other titles: Teachers guide to student mental health

Description: Updated and expanded. | New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2019. | Series: Norton books in education | Revised edition of: The teachers guide to student mental health. 2014. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019006080 | ISBN 9780393714128 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: StudentsMental health. | StudentsMental health services. | Mentally ill childrenEducaiton. | Emotional problems of children. | Behavior disorders in children.

Classification: LCC LB3430 .D53 2019 | DDC 371.7/13dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006080

ISBN: 978-0-393-71412-8 (pbk.)

ISBN: 978-0-393-71483-8 (ebk.)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS

THIS BOOK COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN WITHOUT THE help of many outstanding professionals whose work supports student mental health activities. First and foremost, I want to thank all the teachers I interviewed, including those who requested to remain anonymous. Debra Goodlaxon, Donna Harris, Nancy Kurtzman, and Cindy Ralston all shared their knowledge based on years of working with students who have mental health disorders. Mark Weist, Nancy Lever, and Sharon Hoover Stephan, past and present directors of the Center for School Mental Health, and Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor from UCLAs School Mental Health Project have been leading the way in promoting school mental health activities. Jan Mohr and Charlene Myklebust, administrators at Setting 4 programs for emotionally disturbed students, have provided district leadership in addressing these high-risk students mental health needs. Renelle Nelson from the PACER organization shed light on school mental health from a parents perspective, and Katy Perry from Education Minnesota shared the perspective of teachers. Mark Anderson, from the Barbara Schneider Foundation, provided insights about violence prevention. Mark Sander shared his extensive experience in overseeing school mental health programming in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Beth Freeman has assisted school districts across the United States in creating sustainable school mental health programs. Gordy Wrobel has worked to incorporate school mental health into school health programming and has advocated for an increased mental health role for school psychologists. Kelly Stern has successfully implemented several mental health programs in the Hawaii School District, following my consultative review of the districts program components. Sheldon Braaten, from the Behavioral Institute for Children and Adolescents, provided insight into the educational systems role in addressing students behavioral problems in the classroom. Joanne Cashman, from the IDEA partnership, put school mental health activities in the context of communities of practice, which link various stakeholders around a common goal of serving at-risk students. Jan Ostrom, licensed psychologist and behavioral analyst, has provided invaluable assistance in creating a conceptual framework that bridges the gap between behavioral and clinical perspectives, and cocreated the Clinical-Behavioral Spectrum concept with me. Most of all, I want to thank the countless teachers, school psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, and school administrators across the country who are dedicated to educating students and preparing them to overcome their challenges and live successful lives.

THE TOPIC OF SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH WAS ALREADY GAINING momentum when this book, then titled The Teachers Guide to Student Mental Health, was first published in 2014. The book was well received, but feedback indicated that the focus needed to be expanded beyond teachers in order to reach a wider audience for this important topic.

Thus, this paperback edition is directed towards all educators. Teachers, school and district leaders, school psychologists, school nurses, social workers, and counselors can all benefit from the material covered in this book. It is also directed toward parents in order to provide them with the information required to advocate for their childrens needs in school. Since many students are involved with multiple systems, the updated text will prove useful to other audiences as well, including physicians, community mental health providers, school attorneys, and professionals working in the child protection and juvenile justice systems.

As a result of the expansion of the audience, a significant amount of new material has been added to the paperback edition. Much of this was derived from articles that I wrote or co-wrote on a variety of topics related to school mental health. Some of this material was incorporated into the existing text and some was kept complete and placed in the appendix section of the book. Please refer to my website, williamdikel.com, for the full articles.

The additional material encompasses a wide variety of topics related to student mental health. Evidence-based teaching methods, coordinating mental health services and schools, relationships with outside providers, creating school mental health plans, special education concerns, student violence, healthy lifestyles and mental health, the handling of mental health data in school files, and policy issues related to special education are all covered in detail.

The section on evidence-based educational interventions for students who have emotional and/or behavioral problems can assist educators in tailoring successful programming for students who have a range of mental health disabilities.

Methods of providing mental health services in schools are described in detail, with analyses of the risks and benefits of each model of service. Recommended contractual relationships for mental health services provided in the school setting are described, with an emphasis on how school districts can assist in the provision of mental health services while staying out of the mental health business of diagnosis and treatment.