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,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public-school teachers' mental well-being. The present study surveyed a total of 4,926 public school teachers from across Illinois in the fall of 2019, 2020, and 2021. The survey measured teachers' mental well-being using the Warwick-Edinburg Mental…

Purpose: Caregiver-mediated communication intervention outcomes are inconsistently measured, varying by assessment settings, materials, and activities. Standardized materials are often used for measuring outcomes, yet it remains unknown whether such standardized contexts equitably capture caregiver and child intervention outcomes representative of…

Background: Strategic implementation leadership is a critical determinant of successful implementation, hypothesized to create a more supportive implementation climate conducive to the adoption and use of evidence-based practices. Implementation leadership behaviors may vary significantly across contexts, necessitating studies that examine the…

A retrospective data analysis using 2000-2008 three state Medicaid Analytic eXtract was conducted to examine the prevalence and association of comorbidities (psychiatric and non-psychiatric) with healthcare utilization and expenditures of fee-for-service enrolled adults (22-64 years) with and without autism spectrum disorders (International…

States have increasingly transitioned Medicaid enrollees with disabilities from fee-for-service (FFS) to Medicaid Managed Care (MMC), intending to reduce state Medicaid spending and to provide better access to health services. Yet, previous studies on the impact of MMC are limited and findings are inconsistent. We analyzed the impact of MMC on…

As the U.S. population ages, Extension's need for associated organizational readiness increases. We conducted a needs assessment with a sample of 1,028 Extension professionals in the Extension North Central Region (NCR) to identify the current scope of aging-related community needs. Health care, chronic disease prevention and management, housing,…

This article investigated the intrinsic, extrinsic, and integrative orientations shaping reading and speaking English skills among adult Mexican immigrants in two gateway communities in Illinois. Intrinsic orientations refer to reasons for second language (L2) learning derived from one's inherent pleasure and interest in the activity. Extrinsic…

"Transition Planning for Youth with Special Health Care Needs (YSHCN)" chronicles the research and work completed by agencies in Illinois to provide examples of best practice in transition planning. Increasing numbers of YSHCN survive into adulthood creating a need for focus on the transition to adult life for these young people,…

For early emerging adults with serious mental health conditions, vocational services with peer mentors are a promising adaptation of adult system evidence-based practices. Peer mentors were added to the Individual Placement and Support model of supported employment for 17- to 20-year-olds receiving residential and psychiatric care. To explore the…

The fostering of critical thinking skills has become an expectation of faculty, especially those teaching in the health sciences. The manner in which critical thinking is defined by faculty impacts how they will address the challenge to promote critical thinking among their students. This study reports the perceptions of critical thinking held by…

Rural-dwelling older adults often have difficulty obtaining needed medical and social services due to factors such as physician shortages, lack of transportation, and financial limitations. These factors are further exacerbated during an emergency. Understanding these challenges is important to implement successful health promotion interventions…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore utilization of nurse substitutes in the school setting in Illinois. The literature described personnel who staff the school health office in the absence of the school nurse and the barriers to obtaining nurse substitutes. There were no empirical studies conducted on school nurse substitutes in…

The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program was first developed to reduce violence in encounters between the police and people with mental illness as well as provide improved access to mental health services. Although there is overwhelming popular support for this intervention, scant empirical evidence of its effectiveness is…

The traditional teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic alone will not fully prepare students to lead with integrity, govern fairly, analyze problems, and work collectively with people different from themselves. Social emotional learning (SEL) has been described as one of the missing links in academic education, but a restrictive approach to…