O2031: School-based Behavioral Health Program: essential for Addressing Community-wide Mental Health Epidemic

Purpose/Objectives: Discuss the current behavioral health system for children in our county
Itemize the reasons the current system is not meeting the behavioral health needs of at-risk children in our county
Review ways to improve the behavioral health of at-risk children in our county through a school-based approach
Delineate practical ways to assure funding and implementation of a school-based approach to improving the behavioral health system for children in our county

Design/Methods: 1. Hire a coordinator for school-based behavioral health services program in our county (done)
2. Develop a roster of community-based behavioral health professionals who will participate in a school-based behavioral health system (available)
3. Remove barriers to community-based behavioral health professionals coming into our schools to serve at-risk students (completed in most of our 32 schools)
4. Provide a school-based system for the coordination of behavioral health professional consultations for at-risk students in our schools (we have up to 25 years of experience doing this in some of our schools through our school-based health center program)
3. Create a record-keeping system whereby the principals of our 32 schools can document attendance, academic performance, and behavior of at-risk students being served by the new and improved behavioral health system of care (under development)

Results: We have conducted up to 5000 behavioral health consultations during some years in our school-based health center program (Wayne Initiative for School Health). We have not performed any outcome-based work to date.

Conclusion/Discussion: We think that our model for a school-based behavioral health system is the only practical way to really address the behavioral health needs of at-risk children. We believe our model contains all the necessary ingredients for improving the behavioral health of at-risk children in our county, and in most counties in the United States.