Building Teachers Mental Health Skills to Support Students With Mental Health Needs in Elementary and Middle Schools in North Carolina: Program Implementation and Prospective Data Collection
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Summary
Purpose: The purpose of this research is to pilot test a novel, alternative, potentially sustainable system of teacher-delivered, task-shifted child mental health care. Participants: \~300 estimated Procedures: This is a RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) guided, mixed methods, clustered evaluation of Tealeaf-NC's Reach, Adoption \& Implementation (Primary Outcomes, implementation-based), as well as evaluating for preliminary indicators of Effectiveness \& Maintenance (Secondary Outcomes, clinically-based).
Description
Addressing children's mental health is a critically important health challenge. Twenty percent of all children suffer from significant mental health concerns, most of whom will remain unrecognized, unsupported, and affected throughout their lives. Such wide differences between mental health needs and care access are often called the "care gap". More recently, a youth mental health crisis emerged alongside the COVID-19 pandemic. The adverse impact of the pandemic has led to youth mental health prevalence increasing up to 40% in some global regions, which is double the pre-pandemic rate, while a…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 5–99 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: Schools: * Have been trained in either Tealeaf or RE-SEED in Summer 2024 or 2025 after being randomized programmatically * Be a school in the State of North Carolina * Have an eligible principal Principals: * \>18 years old * Employed at an enrolled school * Not suspected or convicted of child-related misconduct or maltreatment Teachers: * \>18 years old * Employed at an enrolled school * Primary teaching responsibility for a single academic class (for a minimum of 1 hour per day and a minimum of 4 days per week) in any grade level Kindergarten to Grade 8 * Not suspec…
Interventions
- BehavioralTeachers Leading the Frontlines
1. During 3-day training, Knowledge and attitudes toward child mental health care are measured pre-training, post-training, and post-intervention. 2. The teachers select students whom they believe have the highest mental health needs to receive care. 3. Teachers analyze chosen students' symptoms. 4. Teachers analyze students' behavior with the AABC Chart. 5. Teachers develop a targeted response using a behavior plan called the 4Cs plan (Cause, Change, Connect, and Cultivate). In the 4Cs, teachers select therapeutic techniques to deliver from a menu of evidence-based therapeutic options for each category of behavior. 6. Throughout the year, teachers receive supervision through monthly site visits supplemented by as-needed telephone and digital discussions to guide their care from the study team. Teachers encourage the use of the 4Cs plan at home.
- BehavioralResponding to Students' Emotions Through Education
All processes for RE-SEED are the same as in Tealeaf except... 1. Teachers receive only 1 day of training 2. The study team does not provide supervision to the teachers, allowing only the school counselor to provide supervision This less resource-intensive approach will allow for an ethical comparator to Tealeaf, where the schools would like for teachers to have some skills to support identified students.
Location
- University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel Hill, North Carolina