National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day: May 6, 2010

"An estimated 4.5 to 6.3 million children and youth in the United States face mental health challenges. About two thirds do not receive needed mental health services due to the high costs and limited availability of services in many communities. Families are challenged
with obtaining services, and youth are left at risk for difficulties in school and/or the community." -SAMHSA


The following information is from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day (Awareness Day) is a day for everyone to promote positive youth development, resilience, recovery, and the transformation of mental health services delivery for children and youth with serious mental health needs and their families. Awareness Day raises awareness of effective programs for children's mental health needs; demonstrates how children's mental health initiatives promote positive youth development, recovery, and resilience; and shows how children with mental health needs thrive in their communities.

On Thursday, May 6, 2010, Awareness Day will mark its 5th anniversary, as well as a first-time focus on the topic of early childhood. Communities across the country will observe the day with events, youth demonstrations, and social networking campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and increase understanding of the mental health needs of children and their families.

Awareness Day efforts will encourage the following actions:

• Integrate mental health into every environment that impacts child development from birth
• Nurture the social and emotional well-being of children from birth
• Look for and discuss milestones of a child's social and emotional development from birth.

The following publication provides information about ways systems of care can improve situations for youth who experience mental health difficulties.  Students who receive appropriate support have a lower rate of repeating a grade in school or dropping out of school. Suicide attempts decrease, and emotional and behavioral functioning improves. Students who receive support also show an improvement in attendance and grades. Youth who are at the highest level of academic risk make strong gains.

RELATED

Working Together to Help Youth Thrive in Schools and Communities (pdf)

The Awareness Day Youth Action

The SAMHSA website has a wealth of information and statistics regarding mental health, children, and youth.

There are plenty of ways to prevent serious emotional-behavioral problems from increasing.
Maurice Elias, the director of the Social-Emotional Learning Lab at Rutgers, has quite a bit to say about this topic and how schools can help.  He shares his wisdom via his blog on the Edutopia website.  Here are links to some of his posts:

Giving Visibility to Students with Emotional-Behavioral Challenges
Advocating for Social and Emotional Learning at Your School
Use Music to Develop Kids' Skills and Character

School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs (pdf)

Motivating Teens: Wi-Fi enabled school buses facilitate homework completion and reduce behavior problems on the bus!

  

Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy Bus Into Rolling Study Hall
Sam Dillon, New York Times, 2/11/10

"On buses equipped with Wi-Fi in Vail, Ariz., officials say more homework is getting done, and there's less rowdy behavior... The router cost $200, and came with a $60 a month Internet service contract."




Be sure to read the recommended comments related to the article.  It will provide you with a range of opinions regarding teens, family life, education, the role of technology in society, etc.




-New York Times

Teach Paperless Blog "Seeking social solutions to the mysteries of 21st century teaching" teaching"

I posted this on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog last week:

Here is a good blog for educators interested in using technology to transform education:
Teach Paperless "Seeking social solutions to the mysteries of 21st century teaching"(Shelly Blake-Plock, author)

I especially liked this post:Top Eleven Things All Teachers Must Know About Technology

About:"The objective of TeachPaperless is to help classroom teachers merge Green Thinking and Interactive Technology into their everyday classroom experience. The result is a classroom that not only only uses zero paper, but that recognizes and utilizes the best features of the growing Internet to extend learning opportunities to students. Furthermore, we want to see students benefit from and gain experience in real-life problem solving, task determination, and creative thinking through total immersion in an authentic 21st century digital workspace."

RELATED
SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION LESSON PLAN WIKI

List of links to useful articles from the National Association of School Psychologists, published in Principal Leadership.

Below is a list of links to articles and resources developed by members of the  National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), published in Principal Leadership. The articles touch on a range of topics related to the K-12 years.

"NASP contributes a monthly column to Principal Leadership, the flagship magazine of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). Columns are written by NASP members and address issues relevant to adolescent mental health and academic achievement in the context of what a middle or high school principal needs to know. The column, “Pupil Services” (formally titled “Counseling 101”) received the Golden Lamp Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) in both 2004 and 2005. Also available on this page are corresponding NASP handouts for parents and teachers on most topics."  

(Note: Most links are to pdf files)

• New - Addressing Sexual Harassment
• An ADHD Primer
  
  • ADHD Identification and Assessment: Basic Guidelines for Educators
• Adolescents and Steroids: What Principals Need to Know
• Alternatives to Grade Retention
  
  • Grade Retention and Promotion: Information for Parents
  • Grade Retention and Promotion: Information for Parents (Spanish)
• Angry and Aggressive Students
  
  • Aggression in Adolescents: Strategies for Parents and Educators
• Asperger Syndrome: A Guide for Secondary School Principals
  
  • Asperger Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Educators
• Bipolar Disorder: Educational Implications for Secondary Students
• Bullying Prevention and Intervention
  
  • Bullies and Victims: Information for Parents (English)
  • Bullies and Victims: Information for Parents (Spanish)
• The Choking Game: A Dangerous High
• Collaborating With Physicians: A Guide for School Leaders
• Culturally Competent Assessment and Consultation
• Culturally Competent Crisis Response
• Culturally Competent Schools: Guidelines for Secondary School Principals
  
  • Culturally Competent Assessment of English Language Learners: Strategies for School Personnel
• Cyberbullying
• Dealing With Death at School
  
  • Death and Grief in the Family: Providing Support at School
  • Death and Grief in the Family: Tips for Parents (English)
  • Death and Grief in the Family: Tips for Parents (Spanish)
• Depression: When It Hurts to Be a Teenager
  
  • Depression in Children and Adolescents: Primer for Parents and Educators(English)
  • Depression in Children and Adolescents: Primer for Parents and Educators(Spanish)
• Eating Disorders: Prevention Is Worth Every Ounce
  
  • Eating Disorders in Adolescents: Information for Educators
• Executive Functioning: The Hidden Curriculum
• Family-School Partnerships: An Essential Component of Student Achievement
• New - Fostering Gratitude
• Fostering Self-Discipline
• Gang Prevention in Schools: Mobilizing Resources In and Outside of School
• Helping Homeless Students
  
  • Homeless Students in the Schools: Information for Educators
• Maintaining Academic Achievement in Tough Economic Times
• Making School Safe for Sexual Minority Students
  
  • Safe and Affirmative Schools for Sexual Minority Youth
• Managing School Crises: More Than Just Response
  
  • PREPaRE Curriculum
• Mediating a Better Solution
  
  • Peer Mediation: A Guide for Educators
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  
  • OCD: Information for Parents and Educators
• Preparing Students With Disabilities for School-to-Work Transition and Postschool Life
  
  • Vocational Assessment for Transition Planning: Guidelines for Educators 
• Preventing School Violence: A Plan for Safe and Engaging Schools
• A Problem-Solving Model for Improving Student Achievement
  
  • Problem-Solving Teams: Information for Parents and Educators
  • Response to Instruction in the Identification of Learning Disabilities
• Promoting School Completion
  
  • School Completion and School Engagement: Information and Strategies for Educators
  • School Completion and School Engagement: Information and Strategies for Parents
• Providing Reasonable Academic Accommodations for Secondary Students With Documented Disabilities
  
  • Academic Accommodations for Students With Disabilities
• Psychological Evaluations
  
  • Psychological Reports: A Guide for Parents and Teachers
• PTSD: Coping After a Crisis
  
  • Traumatized Children: Tips for Parents and Educators
• Reading and the Whole Student
• Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Students
• Response to Intervention: The Future for Secondary Schools Part I
  
  • New Roles in RTI: Creating Success for Schools and Children
  • Problem Solving and RTI: New Roles for School Psychologists
  • Response to Intervention: A Primer for Parents
• Response to Intervention: The Future for Secondary Schools Part II
• School Refusal
• Schoolwide Methods for Fostering Resiliency
• Secondary School Students and Standard-Based Assessments: Issues and Ideas for Improving Performance
  
  • Accommodations for Testing Students With Disabilities: Information for Parents
• Self-Concept and Self-Esteem in Adolescents
• Sleep and Adolescents
  
  • Sleep and Sleep Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Information for Parents and Educators
  • Sleep and Sleep Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Information for Parents and Educators (Spanish)
• Student Gambling
• New - Substance Use, Abuse, and Dependency in Adolescence
• Suicide Clusters and Contagion
• Suicide Prevention and Intervention
• Test and Performance Anxiety
• Threat Assessment: An Essential Component of a Comprehensive Safe School Program
• Tourette’s Syndrome: A Primer for School Leaders
• Transformative Leadership for Social-Emotional Learning
• Transgender Youth
• Traumatic Brain Injury
  
  • TBI: Information for Parents
• New - Understanding and Fostering Achievement Motivation
• Understanding and Responding to Students Who Self-Mutilate
  
  • Self-Mutilation: Information and Guidance for School Personnel

Copyright and reprint inquiries should be directed to the National Association of Secondary School Principals.