"Mental Health Practice in Today's Schools: Issues and Interventions provides a comprehensive guide to the mental health issues of students in our schools and practical school-wide prevention and intervention strategies to address these challenges. This text will likely serve as an essential resource for mental health practitioners and educators working in the schools for years to come."
--Michael A. Keim, NCC, Columbus State University, The Professional Counselor

In today's schools, the variety and consequences of mental health problems are growing and receiving greater public attention. Moreover, dwindling resources add to the difficulties of providing adequate mental health services. This practice-oriented, evidence-based resource addresses the key mental health issues and challenges facing school-based professionals and helps to facilitate effective and focused mental health consultation, training, and counseling within the school setting. Grounded in a tiered intervention approach to school psychological practices, this text focuses on preventive and proactive services that are integrated at the school-wide and classroom levels, as well as more intensive mental health services for the most vulnerable students.

In addition to addressing core issues such as screening for at-risk students, Response to Intervention (RTI) and mental health, culturally sensitive practices, community services and supports, law and ethics, and the role of micro-skills in daily practice, this text also covers critical topics such as bullying and cyber-bullying, physical and sexual abuse, suicide prevention and intervention, school crisis response, threat assessment, and substance abuse. Chapters feature illustrative case examples as well as summaries of key concepts. Facilitating knowledge and awareness of evidence-based mental health practices in schools for practitioners at every level of service, this textbook is also an essential resource for graduate students in school psychology, school guidance and counseling, school social work, and educational leadership.

KEY FEATURES:

Emphasizes mental health practice from school-wide prevention to student-specific intervention
Highlights the essential service connection of RTI to student mental health needs and issues
Expands graduate students' and practitioners' knowledge and skill sets regarding high need issues and challenges
Describes state-of-the-art, evidence-based mental health programs, services, and approaches
Includes case examples within chapters and extensive capstone case studies

Contents

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I: CORE PROFESSIONAL TOPICS

1. Response to Intervention and Mental Health Intervention

Bridgette J. Peteet, Ann Kathleen Burlew, Chizara Ahuama-Jonas, and Caravella McCuistian

2. Screening At-Risk Students for Mental Health Intervention

Amity L. Noltemeyer

3. Mental Health Integration and Collaboration Within Communities

Susan C. Davies

4. School-Based Law, Ethics, and Mental Health Services

Deborah Pergament and Mary Kay Klimesh

5. Culturally Sensitive Mental Health Services

Ann Kathleen Burlew and G. Susan Mosley-Howard

6. Micro-Skills: Daily Practice for Mental Health Providers

Michelle Flaum Hall and Shannon Flaum Horvath

7. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Cynthia Franklin and Kristin W. Bolton

8. Reality Therapy and School Practice

Robert E. Wubbolding

9. Mental Health for Educators

Raymond H. Witte

PART II: SPECIAL TOPICS

10. Bullying

Dorothy L. Espelage

11. Cyberbullying and Sexting: School Mental Health Concerns

Sheri Bauman

12. Suicide Prevention and Intervention

Scott Poland and Cheryl Kornfeld

13. Impact of Physical and Sexual Childhood Abuse

Jennifer H. Green and Terri L. Messman-Moore

14. Substance Abuse

Joshua Hersh

15. Psychopharmacology

Joshua Hersh

16. Student Threat Assessment

Dewey G. Cornell

17. School Crisis Prevention and Intervention: Emergency Preparedness and Response

Amanda B. Nickerson, Todd A. Savage, and Scott A. Woitaszewski

18. Mental Health Intervention Case Studies

G. Susan Mosley-Howard and Mona Burts-Beatty

Index

Authors

Raymond H. Witte, PhD, NCSP, is trained and licensed as a school psychologist and provided educational and psychological services to the Jessamine County School System in Nicholasville, Kentucky, the Albert Chandler Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, and Midway College in Midway, Kentucky, before joining the faculty at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1993.

G. Susan Mosley-Howard, PhD joined the faculty at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1988 after her work in Miami’s Student Counseling Services from 1983 to 1988. Dr. Mosley-Howard has filled several administrative positions at Miami, most recently serving as dean of students for 10 years, responsible for institutional emergency response, student support, transition and residential services, and student conduct processes at the university.

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