Building Capacity of School Personnel to Promote Positive Mental Health in Native American Children and Youth - Spring 2021
Registration Deadline: December 15, 2020
Need more information? Contact us at sarah.k.nielsen@und.edu
This free series consists of five separate two-hour sessions from January 2021 to May 2021. Attendance is critical, so please carefully consider your availability to attend all five sessions.
The goal of this multi-state initiative is to build capacity of school teams to promote positive mental health in children/youth throughout the school day using a multi-tiered approach. Specifically, the Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) will build capacity of school personnel to learn about and implement model programs, such as Every Moment Counts and Circle of Courage, and embedded strategies emphasizing mental health promotion and prevention.
Read about Turtle Mountain Elementary School's positive experience with this series!
Please think about the benefits of participating in this project and your availability to attend the five virtual sessions. Please contact LaVonne Fox at lfox@tm.edu or Sarah Nielsen at sarah.k.nielsen@und.edu or at 701 777-2208 to indicate your interest in participating no later than December 15, 2020.
If you agree to participate, you will be expected to: Identify 3-6 interdisciplinary team members to be a part of a Community of Practice (CoP) at your school. The CoP should be an interdisciplinary team including any of the following: teacher, paraprofessional, occupational therapist, administrator/counselor, nurse, speech language pathologists, social workers or school psychologists. It is strongly recommended that the team include a classroom teacher and be interdisciplinary in nature as training emphasizes application in the classroom and interdisciplinary collaboration. The CoP will participate in all five, two-hour virtual training sessions (see schedule overview below). Attendance is critical. Each CoP will develop a strategic plan identifying gaps or opportunities to improve mental health promotion throughout the school day and identify strategies to implement change.
Mountain Plains MHTTC will: Provide the training described above and any technical assistance during development of the strategic plan and implementation. Provide continuing education credits to the CoP members (20 hours). If your state requires transcripted credit, the Mountain Plains MHTTC will have the training approved, but the transcripted fee is the responsibility of the teacher. Provide required readings and resources to the CoP. Follow up on the implementation plan.
Benefits to you include: Enhanced capacity of all school personnel through enhanced understanding of how to apply knowledge about children’s mental health in the school. Free resources for each CoP. Free educational sessions and online discussions regarding mental health promotion. Feeling connected to other schools implementing the projects. Continuing education credits (20 contact hours for CoP team members).