Early Mental Health Intervention

Early mental health prevention and intervention encompass both mental health promotion and early mental health interventions.

Mental health promotion is a public health concept of primary prevention. It seeks to foster individual competencies, resources, and psychological strengths, and to strengthen community assets to prevent mental disorder and enhance well-being and quality of life for people and communities. 

Mental health awareness promotion is designed to increase knowledge and skills of mental health risk factors, warning signs and provide connections to support services. Mental health promotion activities also seek to reduce stigma regarding seeking help for mental health challenges.

Studies around the country prove that we can prevent or mitigate the effects of mental illness with early intervention that allows individuals to live fulfilling, productive lives. From the influence of genetics and prenatal health all the way through adolescence and into early adulthood, we are learning more about the critical points in brain development and life experiences that increase the risk for or provide protection against the development of mental health disorders.

Early Mental Health Interventions are programs and services offered to children when they first exhibit signs that support may be needed.  Such interventions can prevent or mitigate the effects of mental illness and positively affect a child’s long-term development. The use of early mental health interventions in schools requires school staff to be trained to recognize risk factors and warning signs of emotional or behavioral challenges and for schools to have a referral process and resources in place that allow students timely access to appropriate intervention.

Below are approved early mental health prevention and intervention promotion trainings, frameworks, interventions, registries, and supplemental programs. Intended audiences and resource type definitions are also listed below.

Program Name (in ABC order with website hyperlink)

Description

 

Type of Resource

Audience

3 Bold Steps in Action

Activities and tools show how 3 Bold Steps can help create positive, lasting change to
prevent bullying,
    o promotes social emotional learning in early childhood,
    o promotes student mental health, and
    o prevents youth substance abuse.

 

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

ACT on FACTS: Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention

From the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide:

  • Two-hour online interactive training program, designed in a series of modules
  • Addresses responsibilities of educators in the process of identification and referral of potentially suicidal youth
  • Focuses on practical realities and challenges inherent in the school setting through various training formats
  • Program highlights four categories of youth who may be at elevated risk for suicide: youth involved in bullying, who self-identify as LGBTQ, identified as gifted and talented, and/or students returning to school after a suicide attempt 
  • Training includes optional content that addresses suicide in elementary and middle schools
  • Additional module includes the stories of individual survivors of suicide loss as well as a high school that experienced an episode of contagion
  • Focus in telling these stories is to highlight the importance of emphasizing resilience and protective factors after a loss event

Training

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

BHC

ASK about Suicide to Save a Life Gatekeeper Training

This program teaches people to do the following:

  • Understand suicide and suicidal behavior
  • Identify the risk and protective factors and warning signs
  • Apply basic suicide prevention skills (ask about suicide, know where and how to refer a person for help)
  • 1¼-hour video training that provides certification for teachers in Texas
  • 1-hour video training for informal settings where certification is not needed
  • 1½ to 4-hour workshops taught by certified trainers for community members and others
  • Virtual training now available
  • AS+K Advanced Training this Fall 2020 will include specific, actionable steps to support school personnel; suggestions for involving parents and guardians in suicide prevention; tips for managing student re-entry after a mental health crisis; and guidance for addressing in-school suicide attempts and supporting the school community following a suicide loss

Training

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

At-Risk (Kognito) Training

  • One- to two-hour online trainings
  • Interactive professional development program that teaches PK-12 educators about mental health and suicide prevention
  • Discusses psychological distress, how it impacts students, and what to do when concerned about a student
  • Improves student mental health, academic performance and school safety
  • Trainings for elementary, middle, and high school educators

Training

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

Blues Program

  • The Blues Program is a school-based prevention program for adolescents with depressive symptoms or adolescents who are at risk of onset of major depression. 
  • The program is delivered by 1 or 2 Facilitators who are familiar with cognitive behavioral methods of prevention and treating depression.
  • The program is delivered to groups of 4-8 adolescents, in one-hour sessions over 6 weeks with home practice assignments included. 
  • Group sessions include: building group rapport, increasing participant involvement in pleasant activities, learning and practicing cognitive restricting techniques, and developing response plans in future life stressors. 
  • Please note, if a youth’s assessment reveals current major depression and/or serious suicidal ideation, he/she should be referred for appropriate treatment.

Intervention

BHC

PSC

Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development

  • Identifies, recommends, and disseminates practices/programs for youth, families and communities that, based on scientific evaluations, have strong evidence of effectiveness.
  • Practices/programs rated as either Promising, Model or Model Plus.
  • Provides interactive search function that enables you to search based on specific criteria and then browse through a wide range of practices/programs that match those criteria.
  • Each result will indicate the practice/program rating.

Registry

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Bounce Back

  • School-based group intervention for elementary students exposed to stressful and traumatic events.
  • Teaches students ways to cope with and recover from traumatic experiences, so they can get back to doing what they want to do and need to do.
  • Based on the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS).
  • Includes 10 group sessions, 1-3 group parent sessions, and 2-3 individual student sessions.
  • Appropriate for children and families of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare

  • Mission of the CEBC is to advance the effective implementation of evidence-based practices for children and families involved with the child welfare system.
  • Searchable database of child welfare related programs.
  • Description and information on research evidence for specific programs.
  • Guidance on how to make critical decisions regarding selecting and implementing programs
  • Tools and materials to provide support for choosing, implementing and sustaining a program.

Registry

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Caring School Community

  • Caring School Community is a comprehensive, research-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program that builds school-wide community, develops students’ social skills and SEL competencies, and enables a transformative stance on discipline.
  • This CASEL SELect program promotes positive behavior through direct teaching of responsibility, empathy, and cooperation, creating settings where students feel heard, known, and cared for.
  • Students become intrinsically motivated to contribute productively to a community they feel invested in, and where they know they matter.

Caring School Community is built around the following principles:

  • A focus on the whole school community: Community must include everyone: students, parents, school leaders, teachers, custodians, cafeteria staff, yard supervisors, and support staff.
  • Relationships matter: Relationships underpin teaching, learning, and prosocial development. Building relationships and fostering a sense of community are hallmarks of the program.
  • Comprehensive leadership guidance: The program includes everything a leader needs for a successful implementation, including step-by-step guidance and resources to help plan for, launch, and support implementation.
  • A unique stance on discipline: No more gold stars. A focus on community, not compliance. Caring School Community builds on the powerful insight that when students have strong relationships within their community, they are more likely to acquire self-discipline and feel a sense of responsibility to themselves and to others.
  • A year’s worth of teacher-friendly, easy-to-implement, grade-specific instruction: A full 30 weeks of daily, grade-specific lessons across K–8 that only require 30 minutes a day, with a comprehensive scope and sequence to build relationships, social skills, and competencies intentionally over time.
  • Creating calm, orderly learning environments: Through consistent use of effective classroom management practices and structures that build relationships, the program helps teachers create calm, safe classrooms that are more conducive to learning.
  • Robust content for middle school: Grade 6–8 is not an afterthought. The program provides comprehensive Advisory Period lessons as well as guidance for integrating SEL across all subject areas. Lessons address developmentally appropriate and urgent topics for middle school.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

CASEL Program Guides (Social Emotional Learning)

  • Provides a systematic framework to rate and identify well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs with potential for broad dissemination to schools across the United States.
  • The primary goal of the Guide is to give educators information for selecting and implementing SEL programs in their districts and schools.

2015 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs—Middle and High School Edition:

  • Identifies school-based programs that have been evaluated with middle and high school students and that promote students’ personal and social competence.
  • Current best practice guidelines for education at the middle-school level recognize the diverse developmental needs of this age group and the importance of promoting both academic and personal development, including social and emotional competence.
  • The importance of social and emotional learning for high school is also growing considering its link to college and career readiness and dropout prevention.
  • The knowledge, skills, and attitudes within the CASEL five competency clusters are especially critical during adolescence because youth at this stage are going through rapid physical, emotional, and cognitive changes which create unique opportunities for personal and social skill development.
  • Adolescents also engage in more risky behavior than younger students and face a variety of challenging situations, including increased independence, peer pressure, and exposure to social media.
  • Longitudinal studies have shown that increased social and emotional competence is related to reductions in a variety of problem behaviors including aggression, delinquency, substance use, and dropout.

Registry

Educators

C.A.T. Project

  • A 16-session program for adolescents with anxiety.

CORE COMPONENTS

  • Psychoeducation
  • Exposure tasks
  • Somatic management
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Problem solving

Weekly 50-minute sessions with homework each week

Optional "Parent Companion" which informs the parent of preferred/optimal ways to respond to the anxious teen

Outcomes:

  • Greater increases in number of children returning to within normal anxiety levels
  • Reductions in severity of anxiety at post-treatment
  • Greater likelihood of being in remission at follow up
  • Fewer problems with substance abuse at long-term follow up
  • Stronger therapeutic relationships predicted positive treatment outcome

Intervention

BHC

CBITS – Cognitive-Based Intervention for Trauma in Schools

  • School-based, group and individual intervention.
  • Designed to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and behavioral problems, and to improve functioning, grades and attendance, peer and parent support, and coping skills.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Check and Connect

  • Check & Connect is an intervention used with K-12 students who show warning signs of disengagement with school and who are at risk of dropping out.
  • At the core of Check & Connect is a trusting relationship between the student and a caring, trained mentor who both advocates for and challenges the student to keep education salient.
  •  Students are referred to Check & Connect when they show warning signs of disengaging from school, such as poor attendance, behavioral issues, and/or low grades.
  • In Check & Connect, the "Check" component refers to the process where mentors systematically monitor student performance variables (e.g., absences, tardies, behavioral referrals, grades), while the "Connect" component refers to mentors providing personalized, timely interventions to help students solve problems, build skills, and enhance competence.
  • Mentors work with caseloads of students and families for at least two years, functioning as liaisons between home and school and striving to build constructive family-school relationships.

Demonstrated outcomes of Check & Connect include:

  • Decrease in truancy, tardies, behavior referrals, and dropout rates;
  • Increase in attendance, persistence in school, credits accrued, and school completion; and
  • Impact on literacy.

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Administrators

BHC

Check In - Check Out

  • Improves student accountability
  • Increases structure
  • Improves student behavior and academics when other interventions have failed
  • Provides feedback and adult support on a daily basis
  • Improves and establishes daily home/school communication and collaboration
  • Improves student organization, motivation, incentive, and reward
  • Helps students to self-monitor and correct
  • Internalizes success and accomplishment of goals
  • Students get involved and excited about the program, enjoying the structure, support, and incentives of the intervention
  • Leads to maintenance free responsible behaviors, habits, and effort

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Collaborative & Proactive Solutions

  • Non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care that is based on the premise that challenging behavior occurs when the expectations being placed on a student exceed the student’s capacity to respond accordingly.
  • Found to dramatically reduce discipline referrals, detentions, and suspensions in many schools.
  • Technology for giving students practice at implementing problem solving skills.
    Strengths-based, structured, and collaboratively measures progress using youth voice in the intervention.             
  • According to the website, "There is no minimum educational requirement to become a provider. For a clinician or educator to become certified in the CPS model, they must participate in a 24-week CPS training program."
  • The Lives in the Balance website has free resources to help learn about and apply the CPS approach, including streaming video, audio programming, support, and more.
  • Different types of workshops and trainings also exist. 

Supplemental

Educators

PSC

 SSS

Administrators

BHC

Communities in Schools

  • Communities in Schools (CIS) in Texas works to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.
  • CIS affiliates are non-profit organizations that partner with LEAs and campuses to identify and address the needs of students who are at-risk of dropping out of school.
  • The CIS model is designed to support schools by engaging struggling students and their families, removing barriers to learning, and keeping students on track to graduation prepared for college, career or the military. 
  • Professional CIS staff provide intensive case management to struggling students and tailor an array of behavioral health, basic needs, and academic support services to each student’s and school’s unique needs.
  • CIS monitors student level data and tracks educational outcomes for those students served.

Intervention

Framework

 

 

Educators

PSC

 SSS

Administrators

BHC

 

 

 

Conscious Discipline

  • Early childhood program that aims to modify teacher and child behavior to create classrooms based on safety, connection, and problem solving.
  • Goal is to create a system-wide, relationship-based, community model for behavior management, called the “School Family”.
  • Promoted through program activities that involve intensive teacher training and self-study; coaching and continuing support for teachers as they deploy conceptual components in the classroom and model behaviors; and exposure of students to various social opportunities, including schoolwide opportunities and practice of skills.
  • Can participate in a 10-session online course, attend a 2-day workshop, or hold workshop at you school.
  •  There are also free resources on the website.

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Coping Cat

A cognitive-behavioral treatment for children in grades 2nd through 8th with anxiety. The program incorporates 4 components:

  • Recognizing and understanding emotional and physical reactions to anxiety
  • Clarifying thoughts and feelings in anxious situations
  • Developing plans for effective coping
  • There is also a family (parents included) treatment section.
  • Weekly 50-minute sessions
  • 16 weeks with homework each week
  • Can be done in groups of 4-5
  • Greater increases in number of children returning to within normal anxiety levels
  • Reductions in severity of anxiety at post-treatment
  • Greater likelihood of being in remission at follow up
  • Fewer problems with substance abuse at long-term follow up
  • Stronger therapeutic relationships predicted positive treatment outcome
  • Intervention combined with medication resulted in strongest gains

Intervention

BHC

PSC

Coping Power

  • For transition from 5th to 6th grade
  • Targets students who are at risk for substance abuse
  • Emphasizes social and emotional skills needed during the transition to middle school

Designed to impact four variables:

  • lack of social competence
  • poor self-regulation and self-control
  • poor bonding with school
  • poor caregiver involvement with child

Child component:

  • 22 group sessions in 5thgrade
  • 12 group sessions in 6thgrade
  • Four 30-minute individual sessions once every two months

Parent component:

  • 11 group sessions during child’s 5th grade year
  • 5 group sessions during child’s 6th grade year

Outcomes:

  • Reduced substance use
  • Reduced delinquent behavior
  • Reductions in aggressive behavior at home and at school
  • Reductions in aggressive behavior at school
  • Improved social competence
  • Better Language Arts outcomes 2 years after completing the program

Intervention

BHC

PSC

 SUPS

Coping with Depression- Adolescent (CWD-A)

  • Cognitive behavioral group treatment intervention for actively depressed teens.
  • Areas covered include relaxation techniques, countering negative thoughts, social skills, communication, and problem solving.
  • Sessions conducted as a class with a mental health professional group leader.
  • Skills taught using lectures, discussions, role-playing exercises and other activities. 
    Therapist and student manual are free downloads.
  • Materials for a parent group that is a companion intervention for the youth served in the depression group are also available.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

 

BHC

Coping with Stress

  • Group psycho-educational, cognitive-behavioral intervention for youth in schools with an increased risk for depression, but not currently in active depression. 
  • Facilitated by a mental health professional.
  • May be offered as a class during regular school hours, as an adjunct to a class, or as a workshop or pull-out group.
  • Includes eight 90-minute sessions.
  • Therapist manual and student manual are free downloads.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

 

BHC

Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE)

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-based (CBT) programs designed to help children, teens and young adults dealing with anxiety, stress and depression by showing them how to develop the skills needed to stop negative thoughts and start thinking and behaving in more positive ways.
  • COPE2Thrive provides all-inclusive evidence-based programs (including instructor training and materials) delivered using standardized student manuals and concepts, ensuring that all components of CBT are covered with students
  • Offers two cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based, instructor-delivered programs (7- and 15-session) that are easily delivered (using age-focused student manual/workbook) by counselors, school nurses, and many teachers to students in either one-on-one or group sessions at primary and secondary schools, and colleges/universities
  • Programs include all program materials, training for one instructor/teacher and five hard-copy student manuals/workbooks (additional manuals/workbooks available separately).
  • 3-hour on-line training.

Intervention

 

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

 

Cyberbullying Research Center 

  • Information on cyberbullying for schools including identification, prevention and response.
  • Recorded presentations on cyberbullying including actionable strategies for administrators, and presentations for educators, students and parents.
  • Tips to prevent and address cyberbullying provided for educators.
  • Tips provided for teens on cell phone safety.
  • Fact sheets provided for parents on what to do when your child is cyberbullied.
  • Information on case law and legislation along with visual mapping of state laws, including Texas bullying laws.

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

  • Systematic therapy that organizes treatment into stages and goals, or targets.
  • Goals of the first stage of DBT focus on decreasing life-threatening behaviors, including addressing depression, suicidality, substance dependence, and PSTD.
  • Skills taught in DBT groups by a mental health professional and focus on improving behavioral, emotional, and cognitive instability.
  • DBT groups focus on the development of the following four skills: mindfulness meditation, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.                             

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Defiant Children by Russell Barkley, Ph.D.
 

  • Outlines strategies for parents and educators to recognize and apply positive interventions to reduce the behavioral symptoms related to Oppositional Defiance Disorder and other defiant related mental health struggles.
  • Each handbook contains educational tools, assessments, and evidenced based strategies to help parents, educators, and mental health professionals understand the causes of noncompliant, defiant, oppositional, or socially hostile behavior at home or in school; take systematic steps to reduce it; and reinforce positive change at home, school, and the community.
  • Several instructional editions available for educators, clinicians, and parents based on setting and child’s developmental age.
  • Recommended only for child clinical and school psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, nurses, & psychiatrists.

 

Supplemental

BHC

Defiant Teens by Russell Barkley, Ph.D.
Resource - Book

  • Outlines strategies for parents and educators to recognize and apply positive interventions to reduce the behavioral symptoms related to Oppositional Defiance Disorder and other defiant related mental health struggles.
  • Each handbook contains educational tools, assessments, and evidenced based strategies to help parents, educators, and mental health professionals understand the causes of noncompliant, defiant, oppositional, or socially hostile behavior at home or in school; take systematic steps to reduce it; and reinforce positive change at home, school, and the community.
  • Several instructional editions available for educators, clinicians, and parents based on setting and child’s developmental age.
  • Recommended only for child clinical and school psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, nurses, & psychiatrists.

Supplemental

BHC

DFPS Trauma Informed Care Training

  • Training to assist families, caregivers and other social service providers in fostering greater understanding of trauma-informed care and child traumatic stress.
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.

Training

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Administrators

Families and Schools Together (FAST)

  • Internationally acclaimed parent engagement program that helps children thrive by building strong relationships at home.
  • Multifamily group intervention program designed to build protective factors for children, empower parents to be primary prevention agents, and build supportive parent-to-parent groups.
  • Helps children thrive by building stronger, more supportive relationships at home.
  • Consistently produces statistically significant improvements in children’s behavior, emotional well-being, and academic performance while building social capital among families, schools and communities.
  • 8 weekly sessions, each 2 ½ hrs.- a trained team of a parent, school professional, clinical social worker, and substance abuse counselor facilitate sessions.

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Helping Traumatized Children Learn
Volume I: A report and Policy Agenda & Volume II: Creating and Advocating for Trauma Sensitive Schools

  • Volume 1 describes the impact of trauma on learning and summarizes the research from psychology and neurobiology that documents the impact trauma from exposure to violence can have on children’s learning, behavior, and relationships in school.
  • Report also introduces the Flexible Framework, a tool organized according to six core operational functions for schools that can help any school create a trauma-sensitive learning environment for all children.
  • Volume 2 offers a guide to a process for creating trauma-sensitive schools.
  • This material is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.
  • These volumes provide detailed information on trauma sensitive schools and teach how to implement a trauma sensitive school framework.

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

HOPE Squads

  • School-based peer support team that partners with local mental health agencies.
  • Peers select students who are trustworthy and caring individuals to join the Hope Squad.
  • Squad members are trained to watch for at-risk students, provide friendship, identify suicide-warning signs, and seek help from adults.
  • NOT taught to act as counselors, but are educated on recognizing suicide warning signs and how to properly and respectfully report concerns to an adult.
  • Students must get a permission form signed by their parents and go through training after being invited to be a member.
  • The goal is to reduce self-destructive behavior and youth suicide by training, building, and creating change in schools and communities.
  • The objectives are to:
       o Train students and staff in schools to recognize suicide-warning signs and act upon those warnings to break the code of silence.
       o Train students and staff to identify adolescents with undetected, untreated, or emerging mental disorders.
       o Build positive relationships among peers and faculty in schools to facilitate acceptance for students seeking help.
       o Build strong relationships with local mental health agencies and communities while                      educating students, parents, and school staff              about available community mental health                  resources.
       o Change the school culture regarding suicide by reducing stigmas about suicide and mental health.
       o Change community perceptions of mental      health by creating awareness about suicide and         the tools available to prevent suicide
  • 6 hr. in person training for Advisors; 2-3 hr. training for students.

Intervention

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

I Can Problem Solve

  • Universal school-based program designed to enhance the interpersonal cognitive processes and problem-solving skills of children.
  • Proven to prevent and reduce early high-risk behaviors such as impulsivity and social withdrawal, and to promote prosocial behaviors such as concern for others and positive peer relationships.
  • Lessons speak to children on their own level, using games, stories, puppets, illustrations, and role-plays.
  • Key program principle is that the child, not the teacher, must solve the problem at hand; therefore, it teaches children how to think, not what to think.
  • The Center for Schools and Communities provides training and consultation for schools, facilities, or organizations nationwide.
  • Book describing social and emotional learning program. Organization also provides training and technical assistance

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Lessons in Character

  • Designed to promote elementary and middle school students’ knowledge about core character education values and, through that knowledge, shape children’s positive behaviors and support academic success.
  • Consists of 24 lessons organized around weekly themes, writing activities, and class projects.
  • Teachers introduce the theme with a story that shows a value in action; students then engage in that topic with a variety of activities.
  • Also includes daily oral language development and weekly writing assignments which are optional parts of the program’s implementation.
  • 1-day training; 24 class lessons

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Lions Quest, Skills for Adolescence

  • Lions Quest programs are built on the foundation of an educational approach known as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
  • Lions Quest programs support, encourage, and celebrate diversity. The programs guide students to learn the social, emotional, and thinking skills they will need in a safe and supportive environment.
  • Lions Quest programs offer a comprehensive and coordinated approach to prevention that creates the conditions and teaches the skills to prevent risky behaviors while cultivating positive social behaviors.
  • Lions Quest helps provide protective factors by creating a strong connection to school, involving parents in the lives of their children, and helping students gain the knowledge, skill, and commitment to make healthy choices when they face pressure to use alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. Unit 4 of Lions Quest focuses more specifically on the elements that research consistently identifies as critical to preventing adolescent drug use.

    These elements are:

  • Normative beliefs and personal commitments: to recognize that using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is not the norm among young people, and to have a personal commitment not to use drugs.
  • Social Influences – to recognize the internal and external pressures that influence drug, alcohol, and tobacco use and to have positive peer pressure and support for non-use.
  • Resistance skills and other emotional/social competencies – to have the self-management, problem-solving, stress reduction and assertiveness/refusal skills that help prevent drug use.
  • Expectations of drug effect – to have accurate, age-appropriate information about the short and long-term impact of drug use on a young person’s health, friendships, interests, and future goals.
  • Bonding and pro-social peers and caring adults – to have positive commitments, constructive role models, and supportive, friends, family and community members who reinforce key prevention concepts and skills.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Administrators

Mental Health America

  • Aims to increase emotional intelligence and self-regulation through materials for parents, school personnel, and students.
  • Prevention and Early Intervention page includes information on genetics and brain development, risk and protective factors, statistics, fact sheets on prevention and early intervention, links to programs, strategies, research and Webinar recordings.
  • Includes posters, media materials, handouts, social media, and web content for youth and adults easily linked to and shared in electronic newsletters and over social media.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)

  • Teaches individuals who work or live with adolescents (ages 12 - 18) how to help these youth when they experience a mental health or substance use crisis.
  • Training includes identifying risk factors and warning signs of mental health and substance use problems that may start in adolescence; information on a 5-step action plan to help someone in crisis; and where to turn for help – professional, peer, and self-help resources.
  • Teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.

Adult Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA)

  • Teaches individuals how to help someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
  • Training includes identifying risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems; information on depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and addiction disorders; a 5-step action plan to help someone developing a mental health problem or in crisis; and where to turn for help – professional, peer, and self-help resources.
  • Teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.

Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA)

  • This in-person training teaches high school students about common mental health challenges and what they can do to support their own mental health and help a friend who is struggling.
  • It’s equipping young people with the knowledge and skills they need to foster their own wellness and to support each other
  • It is designed to be delivered in schools or community sites in three interactive classroom sessions of 90 minutes each or six sessions of 45 minutes each.

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC)

  • Website that offers array of numerous mental and behavioral health trainings and educational aides to better improve the knowledge of mental health professionals, educators, and agencies.
  • Offers webinars and community-based opportunities to fulfill subject matter interest and required trainings for agencies.
  • Maintains a culturally and linguistic competent approach to all offered trainings.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Mental Health Wellness for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (MHW-IDD)

  • eLearning training course developed by Texas that consists of 6 modules which educate participants about the behavioral health needs of people who have an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD).
  • Can take modules on a self-paced schedule and print certificate of completion at the end of all modules.
  • Modules included in this course are:
        o Co-occurring disorders: IDD and Mental Illness
        o Trauma Informed care for individuals with IDD
        o Functional Behavior Assessment and   Behavior Support   
        o Overview of genetic syndromes associated with IDD
        o Overview of medical diagnoses associated with IDD
        o Putting it all together: Supports and strategiesfor direct service workers.
  • Each module is approximately 50 minutes long but can be self-paced.

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Midwest PBIS  - Trauma Informed Schools

  • Understanding how trauma impacts performance in the educational setting can change how we interact with our most vulnerable youth.
  • Training will build participant’s fluency in defining trauma, describing how trauma may look in the classroom, discussing how trauma can affect student development and impact learning, and how to assess current school-wide and classroom systems with a trauma informed lens.
  • Participants in this training should engage in the professional learning necessary to install and coach utilizing a trauma-informed lens in a systemic, efficient, and effective way.
  • This will include:  1) providing professional development to school staff, 2) supporting assessment of school-wide and classroom systems and practices, and 3) supporting action planning for trauma-informed school and classroom data, systems and practices.

Training

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Administrators

NAMI - Ending the Silence

  • Engaging presentations that help audience members learn about the warning signs of mental health conditions and what steps to take if you or a loved one are showing symptoms of a mental health condition.
  • Presentations include two leaders: one who shares an informative presentation and a young adult with a mental health condition who shares their journey of recovery.
  • 50-minute presentation designed for middle and high school students that includes warning signs, facts and statistics and how to get help for themselves or a friend.
  • 1-hour presentation for school staff members that includes information about warning signs, facts and statistics, how to approach students and how to work with families.

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

National Association of School Psychologists - Online Resources and Publications

  • Website provides handouts for parents and teachers which contain up-to-date information and proven, solutions-based strategies for home and classroom applications.
  • All handouts are taken from Helping Children at Home and School III, which contains over 280 total handouts contributed by leading experts and experienced professionals.

 

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

National Child Traumatic Stress Network

  •  Offers a number of resources for educators and other school personnel on child trauma. 
  • The Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators, developed in 2008, provides school administrators, teachers, staff, and concerned parents with basic information about working with traumatized children in the school system.

        Relevant webinars NTCSN offers on TIC:

Supplemental

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

BHC

NextMark Foundation - Teacher Training Program

NextMark Foundation - Teacher Training Program

  • A self-paced online training for teachers with modules on mental health topics including anxiety, ODD, ADHD, and mood disorders.
  • Each module includes an explanation of the mental health disorder manifesting in the classroom, a strategies section, and case studies, required quizzes, Educators Check-in, and a Teacher Toolbox cheat sheet.
  • CEs and CEUs available.

Training

Educator

Office of Juvenile Justice Prevention

  • Model Programs Guide (MPG) contains information about evidence-based juvenile justice and youth prevention, intervention, and reentry practices/programs.
  • Resource for practitioners and communities about what works, what is promising, and what does not work in juvenile justice, delinquency prevention, and schools.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Olweus Bullying Program

  • Multicomponent program aimed at preventing or reducing bullying among middle school students.
  • Provides comprehensive framework focused on systemic change to create a safe and positive school climate.
  • Utilizes online courses, web conferences and in-person program implementation seminars.
  • Interactive programs provide key information about bullying, cyber bullying, and dating violence, and explain how schools, community organizations, and parents can create safe, healthy environments.
  • Trained members make it possible to sustain program by training new staff members year after year.
  • 2 day in-person training; website does have some tip sheets which are FREE as well as online trainings

Framework

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

PAX Good Behavior Game

  • Classroom based system that teachers use to teach skills for self-regulation, co-regulation, and self-control during any school or after school activity.
  • Builds self-regulation in young people by creating shared classroom/school purpose and vision with adults and peers to create more peace, productivity, health and happiness.
  • Students work together—reinforcing desirable behaviors (called PAX) and inhibiting unwanted behaviors (called Spleems).
  • Students build skills to increase their pro-social behavior and self-regulation, paving the way for better immediate and lifetime academic, behavioral/health, and positive lifetime outcomes.
  • Develops and strengthens peer networks to improve relationships now and in the future, with lower risk of self-harm or harm to others.
  • Provides teachers and administrators with practical tiered-intervention strategies to implement PBIS in the classroom.

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

Administrators

Peer Assistance and Leadership (PAL)

  • Peer helping program that seeks to build resiliency in youth by pairing youth with peer helpers who receive training and support from teachers participating in the program.

Intervention

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Plan, Prepare, Prevent: The SOS Signs of Suicide  Online Gatekeeper Training

  • Provides contextual information about mental illness, suicide, and risk and protective factors.
  • Teaches participants to recognize and respond to the warning signs of depression and suicide. 
  • Intended audience is middle and high school staff members, or staff at other organizations looking to deepen their understanding of youth mental health and considering implementing an evidence-based prevention program.
  • Offers contact hours for licensure for school nurses, social workers, psychologists, and counselors and a
  • Certificate of Completion for anyone who finishes the course.
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about suicide prevention.
  • This training takes approximately 90 minutes to complete, and has videos and interactive quizzes throughout the three section.

 

Training

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Positive Action (PA)

  • Aims to promote character development, academic achievement, and social-emotional skills, and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior.
  • Based on the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you think and do positive actions, and there is always a positive way to do everything.
  • Aims to promote character development, academic achievement, and social-emotional skills, and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior.
  • Based on the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you think and do positive actions, and there is always a positive way to do everything.
  • Lessons are scripted and use classroom discussion, role-play, games, songs, and activity sheets or text booklets.
  • Optional components include site-wide climate development; drug education for grade 5 and middle school; conflict resolution; counselor, parent, and family classes; and community/coalition components.

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

  • Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is an operational framework for achieving academic and behavior outcomes for all students.
  • Ensures all students have access to effective and accurate instructional and behavioral practices as well as interventions.
  • Is a decision-making framework using data to guide selection, integration, and implementation of evidence-based academic and behavior best practices
  • This practice framework is specifically designed to educate about PBIS.
  • This schoolwide framework includes practices that are delivered by school personnel, including in the classroom.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Positive School Discipline 

  • Comprehensive approach that uses discipline to teach rather than punish and, as a result, helps students succeed and thrive in school.
  • Promotes positive student behavior while preventing negative and risky behaviors.
    Integrated into the policies, programs, and practices of a school and applied system-wide—in the classroom, school, and community—to create a safe, supportive learning environment for all students. 
  • Helps guide school leaders to create an environment where students can learn and thrive.
  • Team User’s Guide for group learning among leaders within a school or district.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Prevent Cyberbullying  

  • Provides information and strategies for schools on cyberbullying regarding: awareness, warning signs that a child is being cyberbullied or is cyberbullying others, and what to do when cyberbullying happens. 
  • Includes prevention strategies for establishing policies, engaging parents, students and the community in prevention. 
  • Guidance is provided to build a safe environment at school, including a recommendation for PBIS strategies to reward students when they show thoughtfulness and respect for peers, adults and the school.
  • A searchable database includes resources for bully prevention tips, facts, campaigns and curriculum for both bullying and Cyberbullying.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Preventing Bullying

  • General Topics include: School and Community Prevention and Intervention, Cyberbullying, and Preventing Bullying in Early Childhood.
  • Create an action plan based on who you are (parents, educators, community partners), topic chosen (understanding, prevention, intervention), and specialty (School and community prevention and intervention, Preventing Bullying in Early Childhood, Cyberbullying).
  • Website includes tools, articles, handouts.

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies - PATHS

  • The PATHS® curriculum is a comprehensive program for promoting emotional and social competencies and reducing aggression and behavior problems in elementary school-aged children while simultaneously enhancing the educational process in the classroom.
  • This innovative curriculum is designed to be used by educators and counselors in a multi-year, universal prevention model.
  • Although primarily focused on the school and classroom settings, information and activities are also included for use with parents.

A wide variety of results has consistently shown improvements in seven major goals of education needed for the development of healthy, happy children and future adults:

  • Improved academic achievement.
  • Decreased emotional suffering & behavioral problems
  • Increased happiness, health, and emotional well-being
  • Improved emotional literacy, self-control, & problem-solving skills
  • Healthy relationships and social skills
  • Preparation for the future: Workforce
  • Skills for the future: Life satisfaction, good health, & citizenship

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

SSS

 Administrators

Psychological First Aid (PFA) for Schools – Field Operations Guide

  • Evidence-informed intervention model for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of a school crisis, disaster, or terrorism event. 
  • Designed to reduce the initial distress caused by emergencies, disasters and critical incidents (e.g. school violence), and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning and coping.
  • Potential to mitigate the development of severe mental health problems or long-term difficulties in recovery by identifying individuals who may need additional services and linking them to such services as need.
  • Contact your ESC or the School Safety Center to arrange for training.

Intervention

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

Putting Positive Youth Development into Practice: A resource guide

  • This resource guide presents the principles of positive youth development and was published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Family and Youth Services Bureau.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Responding in Peaceful Positive Ways - RiPP

  • A school-based violence prevention program designed to provide students ages 10–14 in middle and junior high schools with conflict resolution strategies and skills.
  • Designed to be implemented along with a peer mediation program. It combines a classroom curriculum of social/cognitive problem solving with real-life skill-building opportunities.
  • Students learn to apply critical-thinking skills and personal management strategies to personal health and well-being issues.

Delivered over the school year, RiPP teaches key concepts that include:

  • The importance of significant friends or adult mentors.
  • The relationship between self-image and gang-related behaviors.
  • The effects of environmental influences on personal health.

Using a variety of lessons and activities, students learn about the physical and mental development that occurs during adolescence, how to analyze the consequences of personal choices on health and well-being, learn that they have nonviolent options when conflicts arise, and experience the benefits of being a positive family and community role model.

Multiple studies reported benefits in self-reported experience of violent and aggressive behavior for students who received RiPP compared with peers who did not receive the intervention, including:

  • Lower rates of being injured in a fight in the past 30 days in which the injuries required medical attention
  • Higher rates of participation in peer mediation
  • Among girls only, lower rates of threatening to hurt a teacher
  • Among 7th-grade RiPP participants, less frequent violent behavior at 6-month follow-up
  • Lower frequency of physical aggression, despite the observation that both RiPP participants and their peers demonstrated an increase in problem behaviors over time
  • At 9-month follow-up, reduced rates of bringing a weapon to school, threatening someone with a weapon, and sustaining fight-related injuries in the pas 30 days

Intervention

Educators

PSC

 SSS

Administrators

Restorative Justice / Restorative Practices

  • Trauma-informed practice that fosters belonging over exclusion, social engagement over control, and meaningful accountability over punishment. 
    Integrating Positive and Restorative Practices to Supporting Student Behavior, a training available at the 20 ESCs, has been designed to help schools develop Restorative Discipline practices within a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports framework.
  • Restorative Discipline Practices (RDP) in Texas began in the Fall of 2015.
  • The Texas Education Agency partnered with the Institute for Restorative Justice and Restorative Dialogue at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work to participate in a statewide roll out.
    This is a school-wide practice-framework that involves training.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Ripple Effects

  • Strengths-based assessment tools
  • Digital planning tools
  • Multi-tiered learner-directed skill building
  • Data tracking tools embedded
  • PK-12 can be implemented by paraprofessionals

Outcomes:

  • Reduced school suspensions
  • Greater high school retention
  • Greater attendance
  • Improved GPA
  • Reduced depression
  • Greater empathy
  • Improved problem solving

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Road to Recovery: Supporting Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Who Have Experienced Trauma 

  • Training from NCTSN that provides an overview for providers on how to work with children and families who are living with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD) who have experienced trauma.
  • Toolkit consists of a Facilitator Guide and a Participant Manual which are designed to teach basic knowledge, skills, and values about working with children with IDD who have had traumatic experiences, and how to use this knowledge to support children’s safety, well-being, happiness, and recovery through trauma-informed practice.
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
  • 2 day in-person training; website does have some tip sheets which are FREE as well as online trainings.

Training

Educators

PSC

 SSS

 BHC

Safe Schools

  • Completely automates your staff and student training. 
  • Access high quality courses on important school safety topics by leading experts. 
  • Implementation is fast and easy and your subscription-based system can be set up in just a few hours.
  • Our courses are written specifically for school staff members and students.
  • An annual subscription includes access to hundreds of school safety courses, written by industry experts.

*This training platform may include Early Mental Health Prevention and Intervention depending on the products purchased by LEAs.

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

safeTALK

  • 4-hour gatekeeper training for people who want to become alert to the dangers of suicide in a convenient timeframe.
  • Program used by students, teachers, community volunteers, first responders, military personnel, police, public and private employees, and professional athletes – among many others.
  • Most SafeTALK Instructors in Texas are LMHA staff - contact the LMHA in the school district’s area to find a training.      
  • This resource is specifically designed to educate about suicide prevention.

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

SAMHSA Programs

  • Offer information, training, and technical assistance to improve the quality and delivery of behavioral health services across the nation.

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrators

School Climate Improvement Resource Package 

  • The way students, families, teachers, and other school staff experience the school and school-related activities affects student attendance, learning, and achievement.
  • Provides district and school leaders, teachers, school staff, and other members of the school community with the basics on how to initiate, implement, and sustain school climate improvements.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

School Climate Practice 

  • Website includes a Resource Center with briefs, tools, case studies, and effective practices for building and sustaining a positive school climate.
  • Information available on measuring school climate and access to a comprehensive school climate inventory.
  • The Center provides a school climate building process that is integrated with Social Emotional, Learning, bully prevention and diversity inclusion best practices.

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

School Climate Survey 

  • U.S. Department of Education (ED) provides survey with reports to guide initiatives designed to measure and strengthen a positive school climate. 
  • School Climate is measured across three domains including: Engagement, Safety and Environment. 
  • Items assessed within the domains include: Cultural and Linguistic Competence, Relationships, School Participation, Emotional Safety, Physical Safety, Bullying/Cyberbullying, Substance Abuse, Emergency Preparedness/Management, Physical Environment, Instructional Environment, Physical Health, Mental Health and Discipline.
  • Surveys are available for engaging stakeholders in the process including educators, community members, parents and students.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Second Step Suite

  • Provides instruction in social and emotional learning with units on skills for learning, empathy, emotion management, friendship skills, and problem solving.
  • Includes bully prevention and child protection modules and has a strong evidence-base for increased positive behavior, reduced conduct problems, reduced emotional distress, improved social and emotional skill performance.
  • Contains separate sets of lessons for use in prekindergarten through eighth grade implemented in 22 to 28 weeks each year.
  • Uses four key strategies to reinforce skill development: brain builder games (to build executive function), weekly theme activities, reinforcing activities, and home links in English and Spanish.
  • Tools are available for administrators for embedding SEL concepts into school policies to sustain a culture of caring, learning and achievement.
  • Lessons implemented over a period of 22 to 28 weeks each year.

Intervention

Educators

PSC

SSS

Signs of Suicide - SOS

  • Universal, school-based prevention program designed for middle and high school students
  • Goals are to:
    • Decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression
    • Encourage personal help-seeking and/or help-seeking on behalf of a friend
    • Reduce the stigma of mental illness and acknowledge the importance of seeking help or treatment
    • Engage parents and school staff as partners in prevention through “gatekeeper” education
    • Encourage schools to develop community-based partnerships to support student mental health
  • Through a video and guided discussion, students learn to identify warning signs of suicide and depression in a single class period.
  • At the end of the session, students complete a seven-question screening for depression (anonymous or signed –the school can decide) to further encourage help-seeking and connect students at risk with trusted adults.
  • The curriculum raises awareness about behavioral health and encourages students to ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) when worried about themselves or their peers.

Training

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

Social Programs that Work

  • Site seeks to identify those social programs shown in rigorous studies to produce sizable, sustained benefits to participants and/or society, so that they can be deployed to help solve social problems.
  • The specific purpose is to enable policy officials and other readers to distinguish credible findings of program effectiveness from the many others that claim to be.
  • Site focuses on the results of well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which are widely regarded as the strongest method of evaluating program effectiveness.
  • Site identifies programs that, based on careful review of the studies in consultation with outside experts, meet the criteria for “Top Tier,” “Near Top Tier,” or “Suggestive Tier.”

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

BHC

Administrators

Starr Commonwealth Training on Trauma Informed Care and Resiliency

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program

  • Schoolwide intervention designed to prevent bullying behavior and counter the personal and social effects of bullying where it occurs by promoting a positive school climate.
  • The program aims to:
    (1) increase school staff's awareness and responsiveness to bullying situations,
    (2) foster socially responsible beliefs among students,
    (3) enhance social and emotional skills to counter bullying and to promote healthy relationships,
    (4) promote actions (e.g., joining groups, resolving conflict) associated with general social competence, and

(5) reduce bullying (and related problems) and improve positive bystander behavior.

  • The program has three components: schoolwide program guide, staff training and classroom curriculum.
  • Includes in-person training, at the minimum 3 hours.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Student Success Skills

  • Student Success Skills (SSS) is a school counselor led program based on the principle that students can improve academically when surrounded by a supportive environment that involves skill-building activities in self-management, prosocial behaviors, and cognition.
  • It is a humanistic approach to school counseling that focuses on the following areas: (1) cognitive factors, including memory and learning processes, (2) attitudinal skills, (3) self-regulation and metacognitive abilities, (4) behavioral strategies and goals, and (5) social skills training.
  • Significant Positive Findings: reduced problem behaviors, increased cooperation, reduced bullying, reduced anxiety, improved impulse control, improved motivation

Intervention

PSC

Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) - Schools

Why Address Suicide Prevention?

  • Maintaining a safe school environment is part of your school's overall mission.
  • Students' mental health can affect how well they perform in school.
  • Suicide can affect the entire school community. 
  • The best way to prevent suicide is to use a comprehensive approach that includes these key components:
    • Promote emotional well-being and connectedness among all students.
    • Identify students who may be at risk for suicide and assist them in getting help.
    • Be prepared to respond when a suicide death occurs.

See All Resources Related to Schools for a full list of materials, programs, trainings, and other information available from SPRC. Use the filters to narrow your results.
For more on other settings and groups, see Settings and Populations pages.

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrators

Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC)

  • Official university-level research center at Texas State University.
  • Serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of safety and security information through research, training, and technical assistance for K-12 schools and junior colleges throughout the state of Texas.
  • Also builds partnerships among youth, adults, schools, law enforcement officers, and community stakeholders to reduce the impact of tobacco on all Texans through prevention, training and enforcement initiatives.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrators

Texas Suicide Safer Schools Implementation Guide and Tools

  • Report was designed to inform Texas educators about the incidence of youth suicide and to emphasize the responsibility of school leadership to increase suicide awareness, enhance protective factors, build resilience in students, and intervene and get help for a suicidal student.
  • Provides a framework on how to turn your school into a suicide safer school.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

The Emotional Backpack Project

  • Education and awareness program led by the Center for School Behavioral Health at Mental Health America of Greater Houston.
  • Teaches educators, children, and parents about protecting their mental health so that every child feels supported and able to come to school ready to learn.
  • Training modules, lesson plans, and activities implemented by 2 Emotional Backpack Leaders selected by participating schools who participate in train-the-trainer learning sessions and implement modules on youth mental health signs and symptoms, trauma informed classrooms, advanced trauma-informed teaching practices, self-care and suicide prevention throughout school year.
  • Emotional Backpack Leaders receive certification after completing the training allowing for continued implementation in subsequent years and providing a cost-effective way to train other campus personnel as Leaders.
  • Emotional Backpack Leaders will receive technical support and coaching throughout the entire school year.
  • Training modules fulfill TEA requirements for mental health and suicide prevention training.
  • Year-long program; school orientation (2 hrs), summer training (8 hrs), winter training (4 hrs).

Training

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

The Four Pillars of Wellbeing

  • The Contentment Foundation has created a universal, evidence-based, whole-school transformation that supports the mental health of entire communities from the inside out.
  • Our scalable, digital platform and live trainings empower large educational systems and the families who surround them to create safer, healthier, and more psychologically-well environments worldwide.
  • The Four Pillars of Wellbeing, our cornerstone curriculum, is scientifically evidenced to improve school performance and safety metrics across the board - reductions in bullying, increased teacher retention, improved academic performance, and reduced anxiety and stress are common outcomes of our program.
  • Additionally, we provide powerful analytics systems that allow entire nations to track, monitor, and successfully implement wellness interventions with every stakeholder in the school ecosystem - teachers, students, staff, and families.  

Training

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrators

The Heart of Learning: Compassion, Resiliency and Academic Success

  • Handbook for teachers written and compiled by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Western Washington University staff.
  • Contains valuable information that will be helpful when working with students whose learning has been adversely impacted by trauma in their lives.
  • This resource is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.

Supplemental

Educators

PSC

 SSS

Administrators

The Incredible Years

  • Set of three interlocking, comprehensive, and developmentally based training programs for children and their parents and teachers.
  • Child program designed for children with challenging behaviors and focuses on building social and emotional skills.
  • Lessons can be delivered to children referred for difficult behavior or to an entire classroom as a preventative measure.
  • Program consists of 20- to 30-minute lessons, 2-3 times a week, which are reinforced by small-group activities, practicing skills throughout the day, and communicating with parents.
  • Lessons cover recognizing and understanding feelings, getting along with friends, anger management, problem solving, and behavior at school.
  • Parent training programs focus on positive discipline, promoting learning and development, and involvement in children’s life at school.
  • Program focuses on strengthening teachers' classroom management strategies; promoting children's prosocial behavior, emotional self-regulation, and school readiness; and reducing children's classroom aggression and noncooperation with peers and teachers.
  • Also helps teachers collaborate with parents to support parents' school involvement and promote consistency between home and school.
  • A required teacher training program is delivered to early childhood and elementary school teachers of young children (3-8 years) and consists of 42 hours (6 days) of monthly workshops delivered by a trained facilitator.

Intervention

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

 

The Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF)

  • A structure and process to integrate Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and School Mental Health (SMH) within school systems.
  • Goal is to blend resources, training, systems, data, and practices to improve outcomes for all children and youth.
  • Emphasis on prevention, early identification, and intervention of the social, emotional, and behavior needs of students
  • Family and community partner involvement critical to this framework.
  • Training intended for schools or communities to identify needs in supporting students beyond acting out problem behavior.
  • Training will assist teams in exploring the need within their district and identify how an integrated system might improve desired outcomes within their school community.
  • Participants will learn about key messages of the ISF and how ISF enhances core features of PBIS.
    Includes engaging stakeholders to work differently, establishing a structure for integrated work, and creating a shared system.
  • Participants will develop an action plan for taking key learning back to engage district and community leadership.
  • The Midwest PBIS Network page has a variety of resources, training materials, tools and recorded webinars
  • This practice framework is specifically designed to educate about PBIS and school mental health.
  • This schoolwide framework includes practices that are delivered by school personnel, including in the classroom.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

The Search Institute – Developmental Assets

  • Website provides tools for classroom activities to measure and improve academic motivation. 
  • Resources examine social and emotional factors along with other key variables that affect student motivation and engagement.
  • Keep Connected is a parent engagement program for schools.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Transition of Youth and Young Adults with Emotional or Behavioral Difficulties

  • Evidenced Supported Approaches that assist high school students with mental health disorders in finding and maintaining employment, establishing positive relationships, learning tools to achieve goals, and build strengths when transitioning to adulthood and out of the home and school setting.
  • Outlines systemic approaches from the educational, justice, mental health, and other community settings to support positive outcomes that are developmentally and culturally appropriate and reduce common transitioning risk behaviors through strength-based prevention planning and coordinated care.

 

Supplemental

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents - TGCT-A

  • Program is suitable for either individual or group applications in clinical or school settings.
  • Manual provides detailed descriptions of the sessions, focusing on trauma psychoeducation, activities to enhance emotional awareness, identification of personal trauma/grief symptoms and trauma/loss reminders, development of a personal set of coping skills, and how to access different types of support

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) 2.0

  • Online training course for mental health professionals learning Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).
  • Developed in close collaboration with the TF-CBT developers and incorporates all the most recent developments in the model.
  • Comprised of 11 learning modules, each with a pre- and post-test, that cover the foundations of TF-CBT and each of the treatment components.
  • Each module has a concise explanation of the treatment component, video demonstrations of treatment procedures and techniques, and clinical materials and resources.
  • Self-paced course with each module taking approximately one hour.
  • All 11 modules and the final evaluation must be completed in order to access the certificate of completion.
  • Initially the course must be completed sequentially; however, once a learner completes the course, s/he will continue to have access for the lifetime of the course.
  • To find a TF-CBT therapist, search this national database: https://tfcbt.org/members/.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Trauma Sensitive Schools

  • Whole-school approach to creating trauma sensitive schools.
  • Seminal materials produced by Massachusetts Advocates for Children, including Helping Traumatized Children Learn, and Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools, as well as the Compassionate Schools work carried out by the state of Washington are the foundation of this curriculum.
  • Curricula, assessment tools, and models for implementing a trauma-informed approach for schools are provided.
  • The South-Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center trained state and regional educators to become facilitators of the Trauma Sensitive Schools curriculum and provides ongoing coaching.
  • Continued opportunities for training on this curriculum will be offered as demand allows.
  • This practice is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Triple P Positive Parenting Program

  • An approach to parenting that gives parents tools and strategies to raise their child in an environment that is safe, loving and predictable.
  • Gives parents the confidence and skills to build good relationships with their child or teenager, set boundaries and rules, and follow up with consequences that are not harmful.
  • Triple P Online covers all of Triple P’s positive parenting strategies for parents of toddlers to tweens (0-12 years) in eight modules.
  • Teen Triple P Online is for parents of pre-teens and teens (10-16 years) and covers all of Teen Triple P’s strategies in six modules.
  • Each module usually takes between 30-60 minutes, and includes a fun mix of videos, worksheets, tips and activities.
  • Can also sign up for podcasts, emails and text message reminders.
  • On-line training for parents.

Supplemental

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) and Trauma-Informed Classrooms Training

  • An attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children.
  • Offers practical tools for parents, caregivers, teachers, or anyone who works with children, to see the “whole child” in their care and help that child reach their highest potential.
  • Uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors.
  • While the intervention is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, the heartbeat of TBRI® is connection.
    TBRI® 101 is offered as an on-line self-paced learning option
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.

Training

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

University of Maryland Behavioral Health Online Training

  • Webinar modules that provide a range of strategies, resources, and tools for behavioral health clinicians, educators, and student support staff.
  • The modules focus on supporting student social, emotional, behavioral, and academic progress through a community-partnered approach to school behavioral health.

Training

 

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrators

 

What Works Clearinghouse

  • The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was established in 2002 as part of an initiative of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education.
  • The mission of the WWC is to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.
  • It is an important part of IES's strategy to use rigorous and relevant research, evaluation, and statistics to improve our nation's education system.
  • The work of the WWC is done under contract to the U.S. Department of Education (via the National Center of Education Evaluation at IES) by several firms with expertise in education, research methodology, and dissemination.
  • The WWC developed an infographic that describes how the practice guides can help teachers.

Registry

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Wraparound Services - YES Waiver

  • The Youth Empowerment Services Waiver is a 1915(c) Medicaid program that helps children and youth with serious mental, emotional and behavioral difficulties.
  • The YES Waiver provides intensive services delivered within a strengths-based team planning process called Wraparound.
  • Wraparound builds on family and community support and utilizes YES services to help build your family’s natural support network and connection with your community.
  • YES services are family-centered, coordinated and effective at preventing out-of-home placement and promoting lifelong independence and self-defined success.

     The program aims to:

  • Reduce the amount of time children are out of their home and community because of a mental health need.
  • Expand available mental health services and supports.
  • Improve the lives of children and youth.
  • A Wraparound facilitator will meet with youth and their family weekly to work on creating a Wraparound Plan. The Wraparound Plan is also developed with help from your Child and Family Team, which meets once a month.
  • The team includes you, your child and people who are important in your child’s life.
  • This may be professionals, family, friends, coaches or teachers who want to help your child meet their goals.
  • Together, the team develops a plan of care to meet the specific needs and goals of your child and family using YES services, community resources and family strengths.

     YES services include:

      Specialized therapies:

  • Nontraditional services that provide alternative and creative forms of therapy to help improve the youth’s health, welfare and functioning in their community. This includes:
    • Animal-assisted therapy.
    • Art therapy.
    • Music therapy.
    • Recreational therapy.
    • Nutritional counseling.

     Community living supports:

  • Help families adjust to special challenges related to the youth’s mental health needs by using proven practices and strategies.

     Family supports:

  • Connect family members with others who can support them by sharing similar lived experiences.

     Employee assistance and supported employment:

  • Help youth find a job and be successful in it.

     Paraprofessional services:

  • Help with stressful situations through coaching and mentoring.

     Respite services:

  • Allow families and caretakers to take a temporary break from caring for youth enrolled in YES.

     Nonmedical transportation:

  • Take youth to YES Waiver services when no other transportation is available.

     Supportive family-based alternatives:

  • Provide support and model healthy interactions for the whole family while the youth temporarily lives in a therapeutic home.

     Adaptive aids and supports:

  • Supplement YES services with medically necessary supports to prevent out-of-home placement.

     Minor home modifications:

  • Support the youth’s ability to function independently at home and in the community.

     Transition services:

  • Help with the costs associated with a youth moving into their own home.

Intervention

BHC

YAM

The YAM program includes education on the following themes:

  • Awareness about mental health
  • Self-help - advice
  • Stress and crisis
  • Depression and suicidal thoughts
  • Helping a troubled friend
  • Getting advice: who to contact

The YAM program is structured as 5 1-hour sessions, delivered over 3 to 5 weeks, and includes the following components:

  • Psychoeducation about mental health, stress, depression, and help-seeking
  • Dilemma cards activity to focus on problem solving
  • Role plays
  • Informational booklets with additional health and mental health resources
  • Posters for display in the classroom that visually reinforce concepts

YAM facilitators must be certified; UTSW CDRC provides trainings.

Facilitator Training: In-person training over 4.5 consecutive days

  • Consultation: Ongoing technical assistance and quality assurance
  • Progress Monitoring
  • UTSW CDRC is one of the few organizations currently offering YAM certification in the United States, in partnership with Mental Health in Mind International AB.

 

Intervention

Educators

PSCs

SSS

BHC

Administrators

Youth Thrive

  • Puts research knowledge on adolescent brain health into action by shifting attention away from a primary focus on risk reduction toward one that builds those Protective and Promotive Factors associated with risk reduction and promotion of youth well-being
  • Identifies key characteristics and conditions associated with youth well-being, such as: Youth Resilience, Social Connections, Knowledge of Adolescent Development, Concrete Support in Times of Need, and Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence.
  • Includes practices that are implemented in the classroom.
  • Initial training is 3-4 days.

Framework

 

Educators

PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Updated 12.21.20

Intended Audiences:

Educators - A person who works in a classroom setting who is responsible for teaching or a person who supports classroom teachers by directly advancing the integrated social, emotional and behavioral health of students within their specific role. A program, practice, training, or resource in this category may also be applicable to other multi-disciplinary school personnel, such as nurses, behavior coordinators, coaches, classroom aides, behavior specialists, bus drivers, lunch personnel, etc.                            

Professional School Counselor (PSC) – A person, who holds a school counselor certificate in the state of Texas who has successfully complete a school counselor preparation program that meets the requirements of §239.10 of this title (relating to Preparation Program Requirements) and §239.15 of this title (relating to Standards Required for the School Counselor Certificate), successfully complete the examination based on the standards identified in §239.15 of this title; holds, at a minimum, a 48-hour master's degree in counseling from an accredited institution of higher education that at the time was accredited or otherwise approved by an accrediting organization recognized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; and has two creditable years of teaching experience as a classroom teacher, as defined in Chapter 153, Subchapter CC, of this title (relating to Commissioner's Rules on Creditable Years of Service) and the Texas Education Code, §5.001(2)."                                                    

Student Support Staff (SSS) - A person working to provide supports for student mental and behavioral health needs. Personnel who work in this category can include LSSPs, Social Workers, School Nurses, Behavior Specialists, Behavior Specialists, Behavior Coaches, Case Managers, and Behavior Health Clinicians.

Administrators- A person, in an educational leadership position, who oversees daily operations of a school or school district, and who serves as an important link between students, teachers, parents, and local communities. These people may include, a principal, associate principal assistant principal, dean, superintendent, assistant superintendent, district director, and others who participate in strategic planning, curriculum design, organizing professional development, and evaluating system outcomes.

Behavioral Health Clinician (BHC) – A person who holds a valid Texas clinical license in a behavioral health field of study - Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT), Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP), and Advance Practice Psychiatric Nurses and Clinical Psychologists are considered Non-Physician Mental Health Professionals in Texas Statute. These credentials are also examples of Behavioral Health Clinicians and may be authorized for 3rd party payments such as Medicaid reimbursement for services.  All clinical license holders must practice under the scope of their licensure board. If a BHC is the only Audience listed for a program, practice, training or resource it should ONLY be provided by a BHC.          

Substance Use Prevention Specialist (SUPS) - A person working to prevent substance use and misuse through the delivery of evidence-based prevention strategies developed by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).  People working in this capacity for state-funded organizations either hold or are working toward an Associate Prevention Specialist (APS) designation, or Certified Prevention Specialist (CPS) or Advanced Certified Prevention Specialist (ACPS) certifications. If a SUPS is the only Audience listed for a program, practice, training, or resource, it can ONLY be provided by a SUPS.                                                

Resource Type:

Framework - Comprehensive school-wide or district-wide approach to implementing strategies or procedures, that is evidence-based and acknowledges the unique needs of your school or district

Intervention -a tool, practice or process put into place to support student needs

Registry – a resource that describes and outlines multiple frameworks, interventions, trainings and practices

Supplemental - Comprehensive school-wide or district-wide approach to implementing strategies or procedures, that is evidence-based and acknowledges the unique needs of your school or district that could include information, training, lessons, interventions, literature, and technical assistance to improve the quality and delivery of behavioral health services across the nation

Training - Online or In-person

Updated 4.14.21

 

 

Contact Information

Julie Wayman, Mental/Behavioral Health Coordinator
512-463-9414
 julie.wayman@tea.texas.gov