This demonstration of enduring positive consequences lends further credence to the view that nonprofessionals, under appropriate conditions of recruitment, training, and supervision, have much to offer in human service helping activities. (Author)

Studied frequency of occurrence of four different types of physical contact (touching, holding hands, sitting-on-lap, and hugging) in school-based helping interactions between nonprofessional child aides and young referred children. Frequency of contact behaviors did not relate either to adjustment status at referral or to intervention outcomes.…

This paper considers differential patterns of program utilization and the overall potential of the helping model for bringing needed services to otherwise unreached, maladapting school children. (Author)

The Primary Mental Health Project is described as an innovative school mental health program that uses nonprofessional child-aides as direct help-agents with young maladapting school children. (GW)

This study reports three-year, service-utilization patterns of the Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP)--an innovative school mental health program that uses nonprofessional child-aides as help-agents with maladapting primary graders. The PMHP model delivers, with relatively small cost increments, approximately 10 times more service than…