As the youth mental health crisis continues to worsen, there is a need for more evidence-based social-emotional interventions that can be applied in schools -- the setting in which youth are most likely to seek and receive mental health treatment (Simon et al., 2015). Further, exploring ways to culturally adapt interventions for marginalized…

In times of crisis, schools are expected to help students deal with the situation and any help offered should consider the social and emotional problems arising from the critical event. Therefore, school-based activities enabling children to recognize the experience and work through it are essential to sustain their normal development and prevent…

Racial/ethnic minoritized (REM) youth represent a high-risk group for suicide, yet there are striking disparities in their use of mental health services (MHS) even after risk is identified in schools. Prior research suggests that school-based risk assessments and hospitalization encounters can be negatively experienced by REM youth and families,…

For the last decade, there has been growing concern regarding the rising rates of youth engagement in self-injury and suicide. The worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has elevated these concerns due to increased risk factors pertaining to social, family, economic, and health stressors, in addition to changes to typical…

Because of a dearth of experience in preventing suicide in diverse student populations, Pace University developed a multicultural suicide prevention kit. This article details the process used to develop the kit. The rationale for approaching suicide prevention in a culturally competent manner is presented, and methods used to gain culture-specific…

Traumatic crises can have a lifelong effect. The majority of children, however, will not develop lasting problems following a crisis. The immediate goal of the school is to minimize the negative impact, support coping, accelerate adjustment, and instill confidence in students that school staff is available to address their needs. Support and…

On average, natural disasters directly impact approximately 160 million individuals and cause 90,000 deaths each year. As natural disasters are becoming more familiar, it stands to reason that school personnel, particularly mental health professionals, need to know how to prepare for natural disasters. Current disaster preparation and response…

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, CT (USA) has brought the conversation about how to reduce violence, make schools safer, improve school climate, and increase access to mental health services to the forefront of the national conversation. Advocating for comprehensive initiatives to address school safety, school climate, and…

Carers of individuals with an intellectual disability are often responsible for managing their children's psychiatric crises when they arise. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of families using crisis and short-term transitional supports from the perspectives of families and of crisis and transitional support staff. Three…

The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program was first developed to reduce violence in encounters between the police and people with mental illness as well as provide improved access to mental health services. Although there is overwhelming popular support for this intervention, scant empirical evidence of its effectiveness is…

Police agencies across the country are struggling to respond to significant number of persons with serious mental illness, who are landing on their doorsteps with sometimes tragic consequences. Arguably, the most widely adopted approach, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model, is a specialized police-based program designed to improve officers'…

The authors have worked together with the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) National Emergency Assistance Team (NEAT) for a decade to help coordinate communications around large-scale crisis response efforts. The massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of Japan and the subsequent response represented…

This study compares the professional roles of school counselors and school social workers in terms of the frequency of performing various practice tasks, feelings of preparedness to perform various practice tasks, discrepancies between frequency of task performance and feelings of preparedness to perform said tasks, and factors that may affect…

The federal Crisis Counseling Program (CCP) funds states' delivery of mental health services after disasters. These services are provided by social workers, other mental health professionals, and paraprofessionals from the local community. The present study examined whether CCP grant recipients that reported more tailoring of their interventions…

The common path through which youth with mental health problems actually receive treatment is the education system. The current study used qualitative methodology to explore why school psychologists are not providing the level of mental health services that children need, leaders in the field call for, and practitioners desire. Thirty-nine school…