Program Helps Create a Positive School Climate and Identify Students at Risk for Social-Emotional Issues

“About five or six years ago, we began working with the County Department of Education on the PBIS model – Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports,” says Barry Ross, R.N, regional director of community health investment, Southern California Region, Orange County/High Desert, Providence St. Joseph Health.

This program helps schools create a positive school climate and identify students who were at risk for social-emotional issues.

“School districts in our area were implementing this program inconsistently, so we worked with the county to ensure that it was implemented more faithfully and see that all of our Title I schools were implementing it at the highest level,” says Ross.

As a result of this effort, the Fullerton School District determined that there was a need for more direct service for students who were identified as at-risk. The hospital agreed to support the effort with a multicomponent program. The program includes universal behavior/social-emotional screening for all students in the district to identify those in need of behavioral health services; a partnership with California State University Fullerton’s social work program to provide counseling and support services (preventive, individual or group services) at targeted schools; and a part-time liaison to connect families to children’s mental health Medi-Cal benefit providers.

To reduce the stigma surrounding behavioral health, St. Jude implemented the Each Mind Matters/Promise to Talk campaign in North Orange County in 2018. The program was launched three years ago at Mission Hospital, another Providence St. Joseph Health organization, and its success there led to other facilities adopting the initiative.

The Each Mind Matters campaign targets people in low-income neighborhoods with discussions about mental health and a call to action called Promise to Talk.

“We hold outreach at community events, parks and schools,” Ross explains. “We also do pop-ups, where we go into a neighborhood, set up a table, and just talk to people. We talk about how they perceive our hospital as a place of support, whether anyone has talked to them about mental health issues, and whether they have been able to get help if they’ve needed mental health services. We can also use these opportunities to direct them to services if they or a family member needs them.”

During these conversations, St. Jude-contracted staff encourage community members to sign a “Promise to Talk.” This symbolizes a commitment to reducing stigma by talking openly to friends and family about mental health, listening to friends or family members expressing their state of mental health, and sharing one’s story with others to encourage open dialogue about mental health.

Read the full case study to learn more.