Project ECHO School-Based Mental Health Clinic

2017

Project ECHO School-Based Mental Health Clinic Purpose: To provide an ongoing, videoconference case consultation and training activity that will provide school-based mental health providers and community health providers with access to an interdisciplinary team of experts in the field of child mental health. By participating in Project ECHO videoconference case training together, school teams and community providers will expand their communitys capacity to serve those children with the most severe mental health needs. This ECHO project is designed to meet several complementary needs to address school mental health challenges. Goal one: Improve early identification, assessment, diagnosis, and appropriate referral and treatment of pediatric mental health problems. 1) Train school health teams to identify early warning signs of pediatric mental health problems. 2) Train school health teams to triage students with mental health concerns and successfully refer them to appropriate community and school-based intervention resources. 3) Train pediatricians and primary care providers in screening, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health disorders in school-aged children. Goal two: Facilitate cross-system collaboration between community providers and school staff to improve management of mental health disorders in the school setting. Professionals provide education on strategies for schools and community providers to work in synergy to improve outcomes for children with mental health disorders 1) Present information on evidence-based school interventions that can improve pediatric mental health and describe how community providers and school staff can work together to introduce these interventions to school systems. 2) Help schools and community providers to map out and integrate mental health treatment resources within their communities. These goals will be evaluated by pre and post surveys that will assess knowledge gained, skills attained and collaborative relationships established as a result of Project ECHO participation. Expected benefits are increased capacity of primary care providers and school teams to meet youth mental health needs, particularly in rural areas, and increased cross-system collaboration and access to pediatric mental health resources.

Training Trainees, Performing Research or Evaluation, Developing & Disseminating Information, Continuing Education/Community Training

Quality Assurance, Education & Early Intervention, Health-Related Activities, Quality of Life, Other - Leadership

Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Community Trainees / Short term trainees, Professionals and Para-Professionals, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN

Disadvantaged Circumstances, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote

Single-County, Mulit-County, State, Regional, National

N/A