Research shows children with poor oral health are nearly three times more likely to miss school than their healthier peers which can lead to lower academic performance and ability to succeed in school. Furthermore, poor oral health remains one of the top reasons why California students miss school, resulting in a loss of $28 million per year to…

Community-engaged patient navigation safety net programs are established as an evidence-based approach to address cancer prevention and early detection efforts, but barriers to expand and sustain such programs persist. In addition, few studies describe how these programs impact buy-in among communities and policy change within health care systems…

The California Department of Education's Project Cal-Well aims to promote awareness of student mental health and improve access to mental health services for youth, families, and school communities. This brief introduces a series of Project Cal-Well Legacy Briefs that highlight successes achieved by Project Cal-Well partners. WestEd developed the…

Student mental health is a huge issue in the education sector, and due to overwhelmed mental health systems, greater pressures are placed on teachers to offer pastoral support to students. This book is packed with practical strategies to help teachers with supporting their students. The Little Guide for Teachers series is little in size but BIG on…

Children in the United States are facing unprecedented mental health challenges. In October 2021, First Focus on Children joined other leading children's health organizations to declare a national state of emergency regarding child mental health in the Sound the Alarm campaign, and in December 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory…

Building a strong and vibrant school community is a vital component of fostering an environment where students thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. The APPLE Schools (appleschools.ca) health promotion project identifies eight essential elements that provide a steady formula for cultivating this environment. Backed by world-class…

The child mental health crisis resulted in US legislative expansions of funding eligibility and access to clinical interventions in schools. In tandem with the movement to decentralize mental healthcare, we argue that schools are well-positioned to adopt place-based health care models. We describe this framework while summarizing the evidence of…

Project Cal-Well is a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education focused on building capacity for sustainable school-based mental health systems in local educational agencies (LEAs) throughout California. As part of a series highlighting the work of Project Cal-Well partners in Cohort 2 (2019-2024), this…

In the last 15 years, demand has surged among college students for mental health care and many campuses are struggling to keep up with the demand for services. Primary care services represent a pathway where individuals can receive mental health care without accessing specialty mental health services. There is evidence that integrating mental…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an important component of the Bachelor of Health Science (Mental Health), at Charles Sturt University, Australia. All students in this degree are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage and many are employed by area health services across two different states in traineeship positions that can then be used…

This overview highlights Del Norte Unified School District's (DNUSD) approach to enhancing student mental health services via Project Cal-Well. DNUSD is committed to fostering positive school environments and has expanded its Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Committee to further this goal. The district has launched various mental health…

This brief outlines how the Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) supports the educational and mental health needs of 25 school districts in the county. SCOE partnered with three school districts--Hughson Unified, Patterson, and Turlock--to enhance their school-based mental health programs for approximately 22,000 students. The brief…

The release of the 2024 SHAPE America National Health Education Standards provides an updated take on the learning standards used to teach students how to become healthy and well. In this revision, the standards emphasize both individual and collective health and well-being; greater inclusion of strengths, assets, and opportunities to practice and…

In the United States, the prevailing view of health, including the design of the U.S. healthcare system, has historically posited that to improve health one must focus on better understanding what causes poor health or disease. This emphasis on disease reduction or risk prevention, also known as a pathogenic approach to health. This article…

The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) believes school nursing services that are reimbursed in other healthcare environments should also be reimbursed in the school setting. The registered professional school nurse (hereinafter referred to as the school nurse) bridges education and healthcare and delivers quality, cost-effective…