Success for All: Using Implementation Science to Build Conditions and Capacity to Support Student Mental Health in Ontario Schools

• In Event: 49.060 - The Next Phase in Education Reform in Ontario: Excellence, Equity, Well-Being, and Public Confidence

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective
Approximately one in five students struggles with a mental health problem that interferes with academic performance (Waddell et al, 2002). Recent Canadian data suggests that educators feel very concerned about student mental health, but ill-equipped to provide the necessary supports. In addition to a lack of confidence and knowledge in this area, school personnel across Canada identified several organizational barriers, and a need for provincial leadership and cross-sectoral coordination (SBMHSA Consortium, 2013; Short, Ferguson, & Santor, 2009; Rodger et al., 2014).

Coinciding with these findings, the Ontario government released Open Minds, Healthy Minds, a 10-year comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy (MHA Strategy) designed to promote mental health across the lifespan (Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, 2011). School Mental Health ASSIST, a provincial implementation support team, is a Ministry of Education initiative embedded in the MHA Strategy. This team was created to support Ontario’s 72 school boards to enhance: (1) organizational conditions at the board/school level; (2) mental health capacity building; and (3) evidence-based mental health promotion and prevention programming. Drawing on principles of implementation science, this team offers leadership related to the sequential and coordinated uptake of research-informed practices, and provides related professional learning resources and board-level implementation coaching.

Methods and Data
School boards joined the initiative in phases. There were 15 boards engaged in cohort 1, an additional 15 in cohort 2, and, in 2013, the remaining 42 boards joined as cohort 3. Key constructs have been measured using quantitative and qualitative methods throughout the scale-up process. For example, every board completes an online scan measuring conditions, capacity, and programming twice per year. Qualitative data is collected through focus groups and interviews, and an implementation log is used to capture learnings that can contribute to the emerging science on large-scale adoption of evidence-based school mental health.

Results and Significance
Findings suggest that Ontario school boards are deepening their implementation progress related to the introduction of organizational conditions, and are systematically cascading professional learning throughout the system. This foundational work sets the stage for the adoption of evidence-informed and sustainable mental health promotion and prevention programming in Ontario schools. Alongside efforts to ensure that all students experience safe and caring environments, such programming offers skill building and support that is good for all, and essential for some. Given the strong link with student achievement, supporting student well-being can be seen as an important way to help to build “success for all” (Kessler, Foster, Saunders, & Stang, 1995; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009).

Authors

• Kathy Short, Ontario Ministry of Education

• Thevagi Satkunendran, Ontario Ministry of Education

• Kathy Short, Ontario Ministry of Education