Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience anxiety at higher rates than their neurotypical peers, which can negatively impact school performance. Anxiety symptoms for these students can be challenging to identify because they mimic diagnostic characteristics. As key intervention team members, school-based mental health professionals…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of schools shone a spotlight on the issue of student mental health. Rates of depression and anxiety among youth skyrocketed, resulting in an increase in emergency room visits related to youth mental health. While children and youth were reporting the need for behavioral health supports prior to the pandemic,…

National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee discusses her struggle with anxiety and how it opened her eyes to the stigma of teacher mental health.

While educators have limited control over the broader geo-political challenges and physical violence affecting school safety, mental and emotional distress that students experience must also be considered. There are ways to keep children safe and calm fears in the face of the growing unease associated with school shootings in the United States,…

A Multiple Intelligence and Expressive Therapies approach for counselling adolescents experiencing anxiety is proposed. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health challenges experienced by adolescents. Research reveals the association between anxiety in teenage years and psychiatric disorders in later life. Data is presented on the…

Promoting positive agency through garden-based and outdoor learning is a powerful and engaging way of learning about the environment and helping assuage some of the undoubted damage done by climate anxiety. In this article, gardener, plant scientist and teacher, Susie Burr offers some advice on developing teaching activities that not only help…

Over the last decade, smartphones have become commonplace. Today, 95 percent of American teenagers have a supercomputer in their pocket. Jonathan Haidt, Jean Twenge, and others have brought necessary attention to the likelihood that smartphones and social media are partly to blame for the teenage mental health epidemic gripping the nation. It's…

Utah Code 53F-2-522 and Board Rule R277-625, "Mental Health Screeners," sets standards for Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to implement approved mental health screening programs for students. The legislature has appropriated a $1,000,000 for the program in 2024, however prior the allocation was $500,000. During the 2023-2024 school year,…

This conceptual paper introduces the Mindful Interactions (MI) tool designed to enable university teaching academics to promote student mental health and in so doing, impact positively on academic outcomes. The MI tool is comprised of three elements: "understandings" to provide theoretical guidance which inform pedagogy,…

Targeted school-based programs seem to be a promising approach to help adolescents in need. Nevertheless, successful implementation and evaluation of such programs is challenging. However, there is limited knowledge about (overcoming) the challenges of implementation and experimental evaluation of school-based programs. The goal of the present…

Though traditionally confined to the literature classroom, poetry is finding its way into courses of all disciplines in K-12 and higher education. Poetry and expressive writing are useful for encouraging critical thinking, serving as a way for students to synthesize course content, and building classroom rapport. It can also positively impact…

The University of Minnesota's Birth to Three Clinic has adopted a holistic approach to supporting children's needs within an attachment-focused, trauma-informed, and neurodevelopmental framework rooted in the DC:0-5™ classification framework. This clinical framework of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) assessment has been applied in…

This paper is an adapted version of the Brian Nettleton Lecture given at the Outdoors Victoria Conference, 2022. It explores how the last two decades have seen an ever-accelerating Digital Revolution which has impacted on almost every aspect of human experience to the point that it is now omnipresent. Life is now mediated through the screen. As a…

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to demonstrate far-reaching impact on individuals, families, and communities. Emerging research highlights the detrimental impact of the pandemic on perinatal mental health. Warm Connections is a behavioral health program embedded in Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,…

Best-selling author Dr. Marcia L. Tate delivers 12 principles proven by brain research to help you thrive. From finding your purpose to weaving laughter into your day to moving your body, each chapter digs into the benefits of one principle, reveals simple ways you can turn the concept into action, and shares suggestions for bringing the practice…