School Mental Health and Children with Anxiety and Depression

This presentation reviews roles for mental health professionals working with children who have mood disorders, chiefly anxiety and depression, in schools. School clinicians can network with teachers to develop care plans for to ensure that teachers understand and meet the special needs of these children. Emphasis will be placed on a strengths-based approach to developing skills through care plans rather than a focus on developing an individual education plan for children with serious emotional disturbances. This is important, because children with mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, may be best served in regular education settings. Developing care plans is a way to ensure that the school and parents have a mutual understanding and acceptance of the best methods for meeting the child's needs to promote academic as well as social and emotional development. Suggestions for consulting with teachers, parents, and school administration are provided from a noncategorical perspective. Thus, information about care plans will be widely applicable (e.g., for children with other types of mental health problems). Guidance on important issues for school reentry if hospitalization or school absence occurs also will be presented. Ideas for new research will be presented at the close of this presentation. Participatory research and single case designs are practical research designs for use in the schools, and these methods will allow professionals to focus on needs of the child within an ecological perspective that considers each child's needs within the context of his or her situation.