By Oriana Eversole, Ph.D.
According to Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers, child mental health challenges represent a “burgeoning crisis” that must be addressed (2023): “We cannot overstate the profound impact that the past few years have had on our kids in many ways—and that includes their mental health.” He shared that the Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health reported that, “about a third of our kids experience feelings of sadness and hopelessness nearly every day—a 10-percent increase over the last decade.”
Wisconsin is not alone in recognizing an increase in student mental health needs. Nationwide, student mental health is a growing concern. The Wisconsin Department of Education (DPI) is on the forefront of implementing best practices to support school mental health. This includes their work on creating a Wisconsin School Mental Health Framework, which articulates how to build a Comprehensive School Mental Health System (CSMHS), and their work on Trauma Sensitive Schools (TSS).
CSMHS provides a continuum of supports and services that promote positive school climate, social and emotional learning, and mental health and well-being, while also reducing the prevalence and severity of mental illness and substance use. The Wisconsin School Mental Health Framework includes six components along with implementation guidance. DPI’s Trauma Sensitive Schools Initiative provides multiple supports for creating trauma sensitive schools.
Wisconsin School Mental Health Framework: Components of a Comprehensive System
In 2022, the DPI Student Services/Prevention and Wellness (SSPW) Team, which leads the Comprehensive School Mental Health (CSMH) and TSS initiatives, asked for support from the Region 10 Comprehensive Center (R10CC) to provide technical assistance and capacity building. The initial “ask” involved helping DPI (1) better understand the impact of the TSS and CSMH initiatives on districts and school practices, (2) explore how DPI can continue to improve these initiatives, and (3) provide consultation on ways to monitor and measure these impacts for ongoing continuous improvement.
As part of the CSMH/TSS Project, R10CC staff completed an Implementation Analysis and Needs Assessment in April 2023. The information from the needs assessment, the subsequent logic model revisions, and the best practices identified in the companion literature reviews helped DPI leaders and partners identify ways to present a more cohesive and aligned approach for supporting mental health in schools.
R10CC is continuing its work in this area by helping DPI create more extensive monitoring, evaluation, and continuous improvement plans for CSMH and TSS. R10CC staff are also researching national TSS models to support implementation of Evidence-Based Improvement Strategies (EBIS).
The DPI team shared some of the impact that this work is having:
“Previously, we had several hopes for the future of our work, but we struggled to clearly articulate goals, steps to achieving these goals, and ways to evaluate our progress. This process has helped us to ensure the work that we are engaging in is the ‘right work’ and aligns with our goals.”
“The logic model development process has helped the team to narrow our focus in implementing a huge systems change initiative across the state.”
--
Oriana Eversole is an Evaluation and Research Scientist with the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative and a Project Lead for the Region 10 Comprehensive Center (Wisconsin-Minnesota). She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Educational Measurement and Evaluation from the University of South Florida (USF). She has expertise in evaluation, continuous improvement, and systems change approaches.
Additional Resources:
Comprehensive School Mental Health and Trauma Sensitive Schools: An Integrative Summary
Topics
Mental Health