In a January 2015 commentary in Education Week, school psychologists Stephen Brock and H. Thomas Brant write that the report by Connecticut's Office of the Child Advocate on the Sandy Hook shootings highlights the continued challenges facing our mental-health system, where disconnects between our schools and communities play a critical role. These disconnects include inadequate and inconsistent access to mental-health professionals, fractured service delivery, poor information-sharing, and barriers to those seeking help. A 2013 study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 13 to 20 percent of American children "experience a mental disorder in a given year." Brock and Brant recommend that to repair our system, what's needed is a continuum of school and community mental-health supports, at one end universal promotion of mental health and wellness (social-emotional learning, and universal screening for problems), at the other end coordinated, individualized, and intensive school- and community-based mental-health treatment for students who develop mental disorders. The authors also feel that access to school mental-health supports should be broadened beyond special education; school-community collaboration must be strengthened to provide integrated and coordinated mental-health care; disconnects between school- and community-based mental-health providers must be eliminated; and families must be empowered to manage decisions and resources around their child's mental-health needs. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.