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CURRENT PROJECTS
School Support
REACH Staff
Lisa Hunter, Ph.D.
Peter Jensen, M.D.
Partners
New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH)
Department of Health (DOH)
Education Department (SED)
Project Description
The main purpose of the School Support Project is to assess the impact of evidence-based universal, selective, and indicated school-based interventions on student, clinician, and school outcomes. Specifically, the project provides training and ongoing consultation in:
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
- The Teaching Teachers to Identify Program (TTIP)
- Evidence-based assessments and treatments
Through the project, six New York City mental health provider organizations received funding from the state agencies previously listed to establish school-based mental health clinics (SMBHCs) in seven New York City public schools. REACH staff (then at Columbia) received additional funding to provide intensive technical assistance to all the sites and conduct an evaluation of the project.
Assisting participating sites in the implementation of evidence-based universal, selected and indicated interventions has been challenging! At the universal level, two schools have actively adopted PBIS, “a broad range of systemic and individualized strategies for achieving important social and learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior” (OSEP, 2001).
The Teaching Teachers to Identify Program (TTIP) is the project’s selective intervention. TTIP helps teachers identify and refer students with potential internalizing or externalizing disorders. REACH staff collaborated with SSIII sites to implement TTIP. Results were promising with the majority of teachers reporting that they found the program helpful.
Much of the REACH ’s technical assistance efforts for SS III have been directed towards assisting participating sites in the implementation of evidence-based assessments and treatments. The clinics are using evidence-based assessment measures (e.g., SDQ, DISC, SNAP, Hamilton) along with their own intake procedures to evaluate and track the status of students seen in the clinics. Additionally, clinicians have received training and ongoing consultation in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Anxiety, Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescent Depression, and Functional Based Assessment/Classroom Management for Disruptive Behavior Disorders.
The evaluation of the project is ongoing. REACH staff continues to collect data in the form of chart review from the operating clinics. This information includes documenting which evidence-based measures have been successfully administered at the appropriate times, as well as the number of children receiving treatment as usual or one of the evidence-based treatments. A more in-depth evaluation with students whose parents grant consent for extracting chart data and participating in phone interviews is also in progress. Preliminary results indicate the School Support III project has had a positive impact on the behavior and psychosocial functioning of students receiving services.
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