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CURRENT PROJECTS
 

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TRAUMA-INFORMED MULTI-TIERED SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT (TIMS)

The TIMS grant is a collaborative project between the School Psychology Program at IU and the Richland-Bean Blossom (RBB) Community School Corporation in effect from Fall 2019 to Fall 2024. The grant is funded through the U.S. Department of Education as a Mental Health Professional Demonstration Grant. The goal of the grant is to develop and implement a trauma-informed multi-tiered system of supports (TI-MTSS) in RBB while supporting the training and development of school psychology graduate students at IU. The grant has three objectives:

  1. Increase the number of school psychology graduate students placed and retained in RBB schools receiving training in trauma- informed practice and MTSS.

  2. Improve student mental health outcomes, achievement, and disciplinary outcomes through the provision of appropriate Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports.

  3. Increase the knowledge of school personnel regarding trauma informed practice.

Current Projects

  • Stakeholder Series: Considering Perspectives of Educators, Staff, Families and Students on School-Based Mental Health​

  • ​Utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) for Students Served in a Self-Contained Setting for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 

  • Perspectives of Students with Internalizing Problems on School-Based Mental Health Services 

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THE RILEY SCHOOL PROJECT

The Riley Project is a collaborative research project between the Riley School Program (RSP) at the Riley Hospital for Children and the School Psychology program at Indiana University. The project is an exploratory study seeking to examine the perspectives of caregivers and educators specifically in relation to students’ reentry to school after hospitalization. There is a scarcity of literature examining students’ transitions from inpatient hospitalizations to school settings (Blizzard et al., 2016; Canter & Roberts, 2012), particularly as it relates to gathering the perspectives of educators and caregivers. The work is funded by the Indiana University School of Education’s Maris M. Proffitt and Mary Higgins Proffitt Endowment Grant.

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THE TEACHER-STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH INTERACTION MODEL
(T-SMHIM)

The Teacher-Student Mental Health Interaction Model (T-SMHIM) is a framework for conceptualizing the bi-directional nature of teacher and student mental health. The T-SMHIM outlines two aspects of the presenting problem:

  1. Teacher burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue lead to unmet self-care needs 

  2. Teachers have limited training to support student mental health needs. These aspects, both individually and collectively, can have a negative impact on teachers’ mental health as well as negative impacts on student mental health (Brunsting et al., 2014; Koenig et al., 2018).

Conversely, research has emerged to demonstrate that improved teacher mental health has been linked to improved student mental health (Harding et al., 2019). Both unmet teacher needs and unmet student needs may be cause for teacher mental health to suffer.

Current and Planned Projects

  • Supporting Teachers and Students via the Teacher-Student Mental Health Interaction Model

  • Systematic Review of Teacher Trainings Related to Self-Care

  • Implementing Teacher Mental Health Literacy Trainings

  • Implementing Teacher Trainings Related to Self-Care

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CURRENT MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICES

The use of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is viewed as an ideal model for delivering school mental health services (SMH) services to students (Marsh & Mathur, 2020) and meets students' academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs (National Association of School Psychologists [NASP], 2016). However, limited research has examined what this framework for service delivery looks like in practice, specifically in servicing intensive student mental health needs. Therefore, the first aim of the Current Mental Health Practices (CMHP) Research Series is to describe participant use of MTSS and views on providing intensive mental health supports in school. The second aim of the CMHP Research Series is to describe current SMH care coordination practices. To supplement the above mentioned goals, the third aim of the CMHP Research Series is to broadly capture participant perspectives on their own current mental health practices via qualitative interviews. To accomplish these aims (to explore the state of the field related to SMH practices), we developed and disseminated a survey in Fall 2021 and conducted 13 participant interviews. 

Current/Planned Projects

  • Current Intensive School Mental Health Practices Within a Multi-Tiered System of Support

  • Current School Mental Health Care Coordination Practices 

  • School Mental Health Care Coordination Practices: How School Structure and Provider Perspectives Impact Student Services

  • A Qualitative Study of Current School Mental Health Practices

  • A Proactive Plan of Care to Meet Intensive Student Mental Health Needs at School

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IMPLEMENTATION OF SBMH

This project seeks to 1) Understand barriers to the implementation of School Mental Health (SMH) services from school principal perspectives; 2) Identify school principal's role in the implementation of SMH services; 3) Examine how an instrument based on the Normalization Process Theory (NPT), the NoMAD, is related to the implementation of SMH services; 4) Determine the psychometric properties of the NoMAD instrument in an educational setting; and 5) Investigate the relationship between SMH team multidisciplinary and the implementation of SMH services.

Current and Planned Projects

  • School Administrators’ Perceptions of School-Based Mental Health, Their Role,
    and Barriers to Implementation

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