We describe challenges to measuring the type and quantity of mental health programs, practices, and resources that schools provide to students, as well as variation in these resources. We conducted interviews and surveys with school and district staff representing 55 middle and high schools in MetroWest Massachusetts with the goal of collecting…

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with chronic conditions should acquire self-management skills as part of their healthcare transition (HCT) from pediatric to adult-focused care. HCT/self-management skills have the potential to help mitigate health disparities among minority AYA with chronic conditions. This study investigated school…

Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to better characterize the medical and social health characteristics of older adults in a long-term group care setting and consider the impact of the dual burden of hearing loss and cognitive impairment. Method: This descriptive analysis of a convenience sample of 160 adults (M[subscript age] = 74…

Multidisciplinary teams of school- and community-employed mental health, health, and educational staff work together in schools to offer a full continuum of mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment services and supports. Intentional teaming structures and practices are essential to ensure teams deliver effective,…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color experience high rates of mental health disorders, yet they experience challenges to accessing mental health services. Community health worker (CHW) models of care have potential to promote equitable mental health services among LGBTQ youth. Our aim was to understand how CHW…

Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth experience poor physical and mental health outcomes relative to their non-LGBTQ peers. School health professionals (SHPs), such as school nurses, play a key role in addressing LGBTQ student health needs. However, few studies examine school health needs of…

Asthma morbidity disproportionately impacts children from low-income and racial/ethnic minority communities. School-supervised asthma therapy improves asthma outcomes for up to 15 months for underrepresented minority children, but little is known about whether these benefits are sustained over time. We examined the frequency of emergency…

The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can prevent 90% of cancers caused by HPV. Health care provider recommendations affect vaccine uptake, yet there are a lack of studies examining the impact of the school nurse (SN) in vaccine recommendations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of adding a SN HPV recommendation to the standard…

All 50 US states have enacted mandates requiring insurers to cover autism-related services. We assessed whether and to what extent variation in generosity of state insurance mandates has been associated with rate of growth in the health workforce for children with autism spectrum disorder: including board-certified behavioral analysts, child…

Objective: Asian Women's Action for Resilience and Empowerment (AWARE) is a psychotherapy intervention designed to improve the mental health of Asian American women. This study documented the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of AWARE at three university health service centers in Massachusetts. Participants: 174 female Asian American…

Background: Women with intellectual disability experience disparities in sexual and reproductive health care services. Methods: To explore perceptions of caring for persons with disability, including individuals with intellectual disability, we conducted open-ended individual interviews with 20 practising physicians and three video-based focus…

Researchers and practitioners have recently called for greater involvement of school health professionals (SHPs; e.g., school psychologists, nurses, guidance counselors) in interventions to identify and address bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) students. To inform future interventions, this study…

Early adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development, and an array of contextual factors, such as systemic racism, exert significant influence. Universal behavioral health screening data of 4,234 middle school students were examined to explore the influence of demographic (e.g. ethnicity, race) and contextual…

Directors of entry-level occupational therapy (OT) programs were surveyed regarding how their programs prepare students to become mental health practitioners in schools. Analysis of quantitative data included descriptive statistics to examine participants' ratings of their program's ability to prepare students for mental health practice. We found…

This project sought to identify Medicaid members with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in five states (Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina) to develop a cohort for subsequent analyses of medical conditions and service utilization. We estimated that over 300,000 Medicaid members in these states had IDD. All…