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Mental health is a dimension of overall health and includes a continuum from high level wellness to servere illness. School mental health includes practices to address thsi continuum from high level emotional well-being to significant student mental health challenges. School mental health addresses all aspects of social-emotional development of school-age children including wellness, mental illness, substance abuse, and effects of adverse childhood experiences. Stigma associated with mental illness needs to be directly addressed and elminated. This is most effectively done through an inclusive approach and offereing examples of people who are similar to students and who share positive results and recovery. School mental health may include but is much broader than a school-based or linked mental health clinic.
School mental health services refer to a continuum of supports for school-age children that are integrated throughout the school community: universal strategies to promote the social and emotional well-being and development of all students; selected, brief strategies to support students at risk of or with mild mental health challenges; and intensive, ongoing strategies to support those with significant needs, including a streamlined referral process with community mental health providers to create a seamless service delivery model for children, adolescents, and their families. Various family, school, and community resources are coordinated to address barriers to learning as an essential aspect of school functioning (School Mental Health guide).
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