Violence impacts our youth at home, in the community, and on campus. This Issue Brief homes in on the evidence-based practices, programs, and policies that ensure students are safe at school. It explores both interpersonal violence and structural violence, and describes the ecological systems framework to address them.
Crisis Response
Civil Commitment: Personal Experiences from Young Adults and Families
Civil commitment, or the practice of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization, presents an ethical conflict between the mental health system and patients. This brief was informed by four interviews with individuals who have experience, either as a young adult or a parent, going through the civil commitment process. While the topic of civil commitment is contentious, the purpose of this brief is to help stakeholders, providers, and policymakers better understand the impact of the civil commitment process on children, young adults, and families.
Creating Trauma-Informed Policies: A Practice Guide for School & Mental Health Leadership
Creating compassionate policies is a cornerstone strategy of educational leadership. This guide provides a deep dive into developing, implementing, and evaluating trauma-informed and compassionate school policies. It highlights four “choice points” for education and mental health leadership: Names & Definitions, Platforms & Levers, Approach, and Match Process to Product. This guide is designed to be hands-on! Each choice point comes with examples, guiding questions for leadership, and practice suggestions to help policy come alive.
School Mental Health Crisis Leadership Lessons: Voices of Experience from Leaders in the Pacific Southwest Region
To help schools navigate our current crises and prepare for future crises, the Pacific Southwest MHTTC asked educators and school mental health leaders in Region 9 to share their experiences in leading school systems, communities, and sites through crisis. These leaders shared: what did they wish they knew at the time of crisis? What have they learned? What did they take with them? The “School Mental Health Crisis Leadership Lessons” guide provides an overview of the crisis continuum; explores the intersection between school crises and school mental health leadership; and examines each component of the school crisis continuum (readiness, response, recovery and renewal) by learning from voices of experience from the field.
Building Virtual Communities to Support Grieving Youth and Families During These Uncertain Times
OUR HOUSE, a grief support center, shares lessons learned wading through the challenges of supporting families on overwhelm during COVID-19. They teach how they addressed JW Worden’s Tasks of Mourning using interventions that can be facilitated by volunteer group leaders via an online platform. They share the magic that can happen when you create virtual spaces with intention for children to connect and support one another around their grief and losses, in spite of Zoom fatigue and physical distance.