School Roles in Mental Health

The provision of mental health services to students in schools involves many players, each contributing their own knowledge and expertise and assuming a unique role in the effort. The collaborative effort to develop a full array of school-based mental health services has been termed expanded school mental health(ESMH), because it reflects both the work of school-hired staff (including counselors, school social workers and school psychologists), and that of community providers who serve to augment the school’s existing services. Recognizing that schools alone cannot address student emotional and behavioral problems and that many, if not most, youth in need of services fail to access community services, many community agencies (e.g., mental health centers and health departments) have partnered with schools to improve access to and quality of mental health care for this population. Reflected in the ESMH framework is the notion that professionals across multiple disciplines, including...