School Mental Health Global Challenges and Opportunities

The realisation that most mental disorders have their onset before the age of twenty-five has focused psychiatric research towards adolescent mental health. This book provides vivid examples of school mental health innovations from eighteen countries, addressing mental health promotion and interventions. These initiatives and innovations enable readers from different regions and disciplines to apply strategies to help students achieve and maintain mental health, enhance their learning outcomes and access services, worldwide. Through case studies of existing programs, such as the integrated system of care approach in the USA, the school-based pathway to care framework in Canada, the therapeutic school consultation approach in Turkey and the REACH model in Singapore, it highlights challenges and solutions to building initiatives, even when resources are scarce. This will be essential reading for educators, health providers, policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders engaged in helping students achieve mental health and enhance their learning outcomes.

List of contributors; 1. The global advancement of school mental health for adolescents Mark D. Weist, Stan Kutcher and Yifeng Wei; 2. Developing and sustaining mental health and wellbeing in Australian schools Louise Rowling; 3. The 'Cool Mind' program ('Programa Cuca Legal'): mental health literacy for middle and high school teachers of the public system in Brazil Gustavo M. Estanislau, Marlene A. Vieira, Taís S. Moriyama, Ary G. Araripe Neto, Isabel A. S. Bordin and Rodrigo A. Bressan; 4. A collaborative and sustainable approach to address mental health promotion and early identification in schools in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia and beyond Yifeng Wei, Stan Kutcher, Ann Blackwood, Don Glover, Cynthia Weaver, Amy MacKay, Vanessa Bruce, Ardath Whynacht, Faten Alshazly and Mitchell Shea; 5. The future of teaching mental health literacy in schools Alexa Bagnell and Darcy Santor; 6. School centred mental health: creating school connectedness that fosters the mental wellness of its community's children, youth and families Connie Coniglio, Charlene King, Keli Anderson, Steve Cairns, Deborah Garrity, Michelle Cianfrone and Jeff Stewart; 7. Components of mental health care in schools in China: an overview Yasong Du; 8. Mental health education for children and adolescents in China Linyuan Deng and Xiaoyi Fang; 9. School mental health programs in India: current status and future directions Devvarta Kumar, Srikala Bharath, Uma Hirisave, Sanjay Agarwal and Hemang Shah; 10. School mental health: a perspective from Iraq AbdulKareem AlObaidi; 11. Supporting a whole school approach to mental health promotion and wellbeing in post-primary schools in Ireland Aleisha M. Clarke and Margaret M. Barry; 12. School mental health in Israel: background, services and challenges Moshe Israelashvili; 13. Development of a mental health literacy program for secondary school students in Japan Yasutaka Ojio, Kumiko Ohnuma, Tomiko Miki and Tsukasa Sasaki; 14. A peer mental health educator model for African schools: untapped potential Kenneth Hamwaka; 15. The current state of school mental health approaches and initiatives in Mexico and Chile Julia Gallegos-Guajardo, Norma Ruvalcaba-Romero and Muriel Halpern; 16. Flourishing schools in Aotearoa, New Zealand: the wellbeing in schools model Pauline Dickinson and Rebecca Peterson; 17. Universal schooling and mental health: towards school mental health in Northern Ghana Amanda Lee, Marissa Smith-Millman, Heather McDaniel, Paul Flaspohler, Peter Yaro and Mark D. Weist; 18. A Singapore model – REACH Yuhuan Xie, Jillian Boon, Wan Hua Sim and Daniel Fung; 19. Improving mental health via schools: a perspective from Istanbul, Turkey Yanki Yazgan and Selin Karacam; 20. School and community mental health promotion strategies for youth in Ukraine Nataliya Zhabenko and Olena Zhabenko; 21. Innovative contemplative/mindfulness based approaches to mental health in schools Katherine Weare; 22. The life course model for providing empirically supported school-based services for adolescents A. Raisa Petca, Allison K. Zoromski, Steven W. Evans and Yuko Watabe; 23. Interconnecting school mental health and school-wide positive behavior support Jessica Swain-Bradway, Jill Johnson, Lucille Eber, Susan Barrett and Mark D. Weist; 24. Global school mental health: considerations and future directions Stan Kutcher, Yifeng Wei and Mark D. Weist; Index.

Stan Kutcher is Professor of Psychiatry and Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health at Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre, Halifax, NS, and Director at WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health Training and Policy Development, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Yifeng Wei is researcher and school mental health lead of the Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health at the IWK Health Centre and Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Mark D. Weist is Professor and Director of the Clinical-Community Program at the Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, SC, USA.