Best Practices for Treating Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders | Part II: Elementary and High Schools

This literature review is part two of a five part series that synthesizes the most current findings from peer-reviewed health journals and other literature relevant to treating mental health and substance use disorders. This section summarizes best practices for treating mental health and substance use disorders within elementary and high schools, followed by a summary of considerations specific to the setting and/or populations served within the setting. For more information or to read the entire literature review, please click here.

Best Practices for Treating Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders in Elementary and High Schools

Although schools’ primary function is to provide education, they serve as a natural access point for children across diverse subpopulations to receive health services (Richardson & Juszczak, 2008: O’Connell, Boat, & Warner, 2009). School-based interventions have the potential to educate youth about mental health issues and decrease stigma (Essler, Arthur, & Stickley, 2006). This section of the review focuses on guiding best practices for treatment of behavioral health in school-based settings organized across four domains: comprehensive behavioral health systems within schools; prevention; school policies; and personnel.

In order to be effective, mental and behavioral health services for school-aged children should aim to employ support systems with an emphasis on each ecological domain (e.g., family, school, home, community) (Trach, Lee, & Hymel, 2018). Services should focus on the holistic behavioral needs of a child rather than on a single problem behavior, as children’s emotional and/or behavioral problems are often interrelated with one another and have shared risk factors (National Research Council, 2002). Additionally, research shows that the developmental age and grade-level differences of youth should be reflected in the content and focus areas of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs prevention strategies (Bruckner et al., 2014; National Research Council, 2009). For example, kindergarten and first grade level prevention strategies should focus on general prevention related skills such as promotion of social skills, communication and assertiveness. For middle and high school aged youth, strategies should focus on education about the biological and behavioral consequences of using alcohol and drugs. For high school aged youth, who are more likely to experiment with substances, prevention strategies should become more nuanced and strategic, such as by focusing on the negative effects of drug use and peer pressure to use (Seitz et al., 2013).

To continue reading, click here