The Wellness Center: Forging Equity in Medical and Academic Systems

• In Event: Research-Practice Partnerships for Educational Equity: Sustaining Good Work in Challenging Times

Abstract

Families of students with disabilities are burdened with additional costs, time, and effort required to navigate medical and academic systems. The University Schools Wellness, Training, Treatment and Research Center was established to integrate support of the whole child into the school setting. The Wellness Center serves the University Schools Innovative School District consisting of an early childhood/pre-K setting as well as elementary, middle and high schools. In collaboration with research and clinical faculty at the University of Memphis (UM), The Wellness Center aims to reduce financial burdens, time, and effort that families experience obtaining academic and medical evaluations that are necessary for student success in traditional educational environments. The Wellness Center offers clinical and diagnostic services provided by nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, school psychologists, speech language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, vision specialists, and English language learning teachers. This presentation will specifically explore how University faculty members in school psychology partnered with the USISD to provide services to children and adolescents while also training graduate students, conducting research, and providing psychoeducation to community members.
First, the efforts of one youth participatory action project will be summarized. The University Middle School requires all eighth-grade students to complete a Capstone Project, where students work with a professor at UM to develop, conduct, and present an independent research project. Students utilized a mixed-methods approach to investigate the social-emotional needs of their sixth-grade peers who self-reported having difficulties transitioning from fifth to sixth grade. This resulted in expanding individual and group counseling services to the elementary and middle school settings, with services provided by master’s and doctoral-level graduate students in school psychology. Qualitative data from youth participants suggested that increased counseling services provided an additional level of support that promoted more equitable socioemotional outcomes in middle school.
Second, a systems-level consultation project at the early childhood setting will be presented. Because this setting is often the first time very young children are exposed to a formal schooling environment, intervention and prevention of problem behaviors (e.g., hitting, biting, spitting) is paramount to later school success. Unfortunately, without appropriate intervention or prevention, many young children get unnecessarily expelled or become inappropriately identified as having emotional disabilities requiring special education services. This is especially true for Black/African American youth and remains a long-standing equity issue in school systems (e.g., Minor, 2014). Graduate students in school psychology completing practica in this setting were therefore tasked with providing intervention and prevention services to reduce the likelihood of expulsions and unnecessary referrals to special education. Data collected through functional behavioral assessments, behavioral intervention plans, and teacher interviews will be presented.
Quotes and video reflections from participating youth and graduate students from both projects will be shown. The partnership between The Wellness Center and UM holds considerable scholarly significance for both academic and practical domains by directly bridging the research to practice gap, facilitating the co-creation of contextually-relevant interventions, and advancing equity and inclusion in schools.

Authors

• Emily Srisarajivakul, University of Memphis

• Angela Hergrave, University of Memphis

• Marissa Gray, University of Memphis

• Meredith Embree, University of Memphis