With approximately $1.2 billion allocated to K-12 education through pandemic funding, West Virginia has the opportunity to utilize those dollars over the next 3 years to benefit its children. This infographic highlights the problems and possible solutions of supporting the mental health needs of West Virginia students.

Notable increases in youth mental health problems combined with strains on the already stretched mental health workforce raise concerns that there will be an ensuing increase in youth suicide thoughts, behaviors, and even deaths. Schools are recognized as crucial settings for youth mental health support and suicide prevention activities, yet…

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among adolescents, globally. Though post-primary, school-based suicide prevention (PSSP) has the potential to be a key strategy for preventing adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STBs), there are persisting challenges to translating PSSP research to practice. Intervention and contextual factors…

This article provides general information and guidance for physical educators, specifically related to their role in suicide prevention. It is the duty of school personnel to recognize the vital role they have in helping to prevent suicide, to promote healthy behaviors and positive relationships, and to appropriately talk about suicide and suicide…

"The issue of what to do in response to suicidal students is anything but a clear one" (Harshbarger, 2014, para. 3). How to best support students with severe mental illness is an ongoing challenge for institutions of higher education. Institutions must adapt to a rapidly changing landscape of evolving federal policy, case law, and…

Teacher burnout is a growing concern. Stressors of the teaching profession can become too much. Emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and personal and professional inefficiency are three main facets of burning out. By reconnecting to others and themselves, teachers can conquer burnout. Self-care, including getting enough rest, is also an important…

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed in-person schools in March 2020, SOS Signs of Suicide shifted to a virtual program. This paper describes an evaluation of the acceptability of the online program by middle and high school students (N = 1196). Students generally responded favorably to virtual SOS. Although some were unsure, of those with an…

The mental health of college students in the United States has been a longstanding national concern, which has only been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Journey to Wellness Scale (JWS) is a newly developed instrument grounded in empirical research in prevention, positive psychology, resilience, and social-emotional learning,…

The focus of this report is on mental health interventions delivered in K-12 neighborhood public schools. A vast array of commercially available programs, conceptual frameworks, and approaches to school-based mental health are not unanimously recommended, applied, or agreed upon. This poses a challenge to any comprehensive description or…

While the conversation in honors about the mental health of students has persisted for over two decades, authors identify a marked increase in the need for student mental health support since the first Generation Z students entered college in 2015. A review of literature in honors indicates upticks in discourse relating to mental health (tn = 66)…

Student mental health needs continue to rise across the United States and many students and families rely on schools to provide services to meet these needs. Yet, an overwhelming number of available frameworks and approaches to school mental health (SMH) and overlapping terminology surrounding SMH supports like trauma-informed (TI) approaches,…

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in Australian adolescent males and rates are gradually increasing. Prompt attention to this issue is needed to stem the rising rates and prevent young boys from taking their lives. School based programs are an obvious place for prevention to occur as they have the capacity to impact a majority of…

Perhaps, Pope Francis's idea of accompaniment can provide a parallel to consider that will allow for Catholic schools to develop a systemic approach to address the needs of mental wellness and to reach a wider array of students. Whereas this approach can never replace the need for the work that mental health professionals can deliver, it may…

Background: Educators in rural schools are uniquely situated to address youth mental health disparities, yet often face challenges in delivering mental health supports. This paper describes the process of adapting the evidence-based Coping Power program, a small group prevention program for youth with aggressive behavior problems, to be a…

The purpose of this study was to analyze trends in the utilization of the Interactive Screening Program (ISP) with a population of students attending a college in the northeast. By making note of specific patterns and observations in the current usage of ISP among this population, it is believed that ISP's potential usefulness for other college…