National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention

New Toolkit on Cultural and Linguistic Competence and Upcoming Teleconference
The National Center has published a toolkit on cultural and linguistic competence that is based on a model of three interconnected arches. These arches represent organizational structure, engagement, and services/activities/interventions. Together, the three arches provide the support to create a solid foundation for the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) initiative. The toolkit includes benchmarks that grantees can use to gauge their level of implementation in each of the three areas. It also includes corresponding resources that grantees can use to move their initiatives to the next level of implementation. The toolkit is now available at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Resources/clc.

On April 10, 2008, the National Center will host a teleconference to introduce grantees to the three arches framework and the various components of the toolkit. Invitations to this event have been e-mailed to SS/HS grantees. Registration is limited to 10 sites on a first come, first serve basis. Please contact Min Lin at mlin@edc.org with any questions regarding this event.

Communication Training Institute for SS/HS FY 2007 Grantees
On May 13–15, 2008, the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Communications Team and Federal partners will host a mandatory training institute in New Orleans, Louisiana for FY 2007 grantees. Making Communications Work for You will introduce grantees to skills and techniques that will help them effectively market and promote their initiatives’ programs and services to important audiences. Beginning early on communication efforts can make a big difference in the overall success of an initiative and helps to sustain its programs and services after the Federal funding period is over. Please note that registration forms for approval must be sent to Federal Project Officers no later than April 4, 2008.

SS/HS FY 2006 Grantees To Attend Sustainability Working Meeting
While FY 2007 grantees attend the Communication Training Institute, FY 2006 grantees will attend a mandatory sustainability working meeting hosted by the National Center. The event will take place on the same dates, May 13–15, 2008, in New Orleans, Louisiana to allow for networking opportunities with other SS/HS colleagues. This working meeting will build on work begun last May at the grantee meeting Leading Implementation for Systems Change in Washington, D.C. It will offer Project Directors the opportunity to meet with expert consultants for in-depth discussions on how to use specific strategies to sustain the positive outcomes of each SS/HS initiative. Important deadlines are April 4 for submitting approval forms to Federal Project Officers and April 16 for registration. Please contact your TAS or Sue Vargo at svargo@edc.org with any questions.

Recent Teleconference with a Focus on Rural and Tribal Communities
Materials from the National Center’s teleconference Ground Zero to Launch: Implementation of Best Practices & Evidence-Based Interventions in Rural and Tribal Communities–Focus on Mental Health are available online at https://learn.aero.und.edu/pages.asp?PageID=116369. During this teleconference, participants heard from Dolores A. Jimerson, MSW, Director of Community Development for the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), who shared information about the association’s work with Circle of Care grantees targeted specifically at enabling Indian communities to evaluate their current children’s mental health system and develop a model program based on systems of care principles.

The following is a summary of key findings from the fields of education, mental health, violence prevention, and/or youth substance abuse prevention.

Criteria for Effective Antibullying Legislation
A team from Georgetown University and the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. reviewed state laws on school bullying and assessed these laws using the its Antibullying Public Health Policy Criteria Index. Districts and schools might want to adapt and use this list of criteria to assess their own antibullying policies—regardless of whether their states have passed antibullying legislation.

The team determined that antibullying statutes need to recognize bullying as a public health problem with a solution by including the following:

Statutes must also support an infrastructure to address bullying by doing the following:

The research team maintains that the legal and disciplinary elements of antibullying policies “should not be viewed as punishment designed to prevent bullying, but as a means of protecting the victims, by providing community containment, while positive behavioral discipline is implemented.”

The full list of state laws and how each measures up to the legislative criteria can be found in “Antibullying Legislation: A Public Health Perspective” by J. Srabstein, B. Berkman, and E. Pyntikova, Journal of Adolescent Health, 42 (2008): 11–20.

This section highlights a few updates from the prevention field. Please go to http://library.promoteprevent.org for more news items and resources.

Consortium to Prevent School Violence Launches Fact Sheet Series
The Consortium to Prevent School Violence plans to post a series of 35–40 fact sheets in upcoming months that are designed to bring useful information to practitioners and other stakeholders. The first two of these fact sheets are now available for download at http://www.preventschoolviolence.org: (1) Overview of School Violence Prevention and (2) Bullying Prevention. The fact sheets provide background information on each topic and summarize research on programs and interventions that do and do not work well to address the topic. Authors also note precautions that should be taken and offer specific recommendations for first and next steps.

New Bullying Toolkit for Parents and Caregivers
Eyes on Bullying. . .What Can You Do? is a new toolkit, developed at Education Development Center, Inc., for parents of preschool and school-age children and youth to use in child care programs, after school and youth programs, and camps. Its objectives are to help parents understand the seriousness of bullying and learn how to recognize and respond effectively to bullying behavior. The toolkit can be downloaded at http://www.eyesonbullying.org/pdfs/toolkit.pdf. Additional information on issues relevant to specific age groups and settings is available on the Eyes on Bullying Web site at http://www.eyesonbullying.org.

Adolescent Mental Health Status Information Available in New Brief
According to the National Adolescent Health Information Center (NAHIC) at the University of California–San Francisco, “one in five adolescents experience significant symptoms of emotional distress and nearly one in ten adolescents are emotionally impaired.” The most common disorders among these adolescents include depression, anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and substance use disorder. These conclusions are based on current research on adolescent mental heath that is highlighted in The Mental Health of Adolescents: A National Profile, 2008. This brief provides current data on adolescent mental health while assessing shortcomings of current data and offering recommendations to address these limitations. The brief can be used to inform health professionals, policymakers, educators, administrators, and school-based health centers concerned with the health and well-being of adolescents. It is available on the NAHIC Web site at http://nahic.ucsf.edu//downloads/MentalHealthBrief.pdf.

Resources for the Fight Against Teen Prescription Drug Abuse
Although overall teen drug use is down nationwide, more teens abuse prescription drugs than any illicit drug (except marijuana), according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). In January 2008, ONDCP launched the “National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign” (http://www.mediacampaign.org), a four-month public outreach campaign to fight teen prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse with television and online advertising. In addition to airing ads, the Media Campaign offers various free resources for the community at its Web site for community groups, coalitions, and nonprofits, found at http://www.theantidrug.com/resources. This Web site is available in several languages, including Spanish and Vietnamese. Examples of resources that can be found at the site include a community resource package on “Bridging the Parent-Teen Generation Gap,” a guide for African American parents and caregivers on keeping their teens drug free, and customizable print ads for prom and graduation.

The Grant Opportunities page is updated regularly with announcements of current public and private grant competitions. Here is one of the listings you will find:

Title: Grants for Schools and Districts
Funder: Teaching Tolerance
Description: Teaching Tolerance offers grants for programs that engage collaboration among educators, researchers, parents/guardians, and student groups that aim to equalize students' experience in schools. Such programs might include:

Award: Up to $10,000
Deadline for Letters of Inquiry: May 15, 2008
For more information: http://www.tolerance.org/teach/grants/schoolgrants.jsp?
ttnewsletter=ttnewsgen-021408

We regularly add to a detailed listing of conferences and events occurring within the National Center and across the nation. For example,

Date: April 16, 2008
Time: 1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Web cast
Title: Community Action: What YOU can do to Stop Bullying Now!
Sponsor: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services (HRSA), and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau Communications (MCHCOM.com)
Description: The “Stop Bullying Now!” Web cast will feature “spotlight examples” of state- and community-level campaigns that use the Stop Bullying Now! resources, and will outline how users can put the resources to work locally. The Web cast will also include a brief overview of the entire Stop Bullying Now! campaign and its resources.
Register Online: http://www.mchcom.com/liveWebcastDetail.asp?leid=329

Date: July 16–20, 2008
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Title: Developing Local Systems of Care for Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Needs and Their Families: New Directions to Improve Outcomes
Sponsor: National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch of the federal Center for Mental Health Services, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation Description: The Training Institutes will focus on developing local systems of care for children and adolescents with or at risk for emotional disturbances and their families. Systems of care emphasize community-based care, comprehensive and individualized services and supports, services provided within the least restrictive environment, full participation of families and youth, coordination among child-serving agencies and programs, and cultural and linguistic competence. In-depth, practical
information will be provided on how to develop and operate systems of care and how to provide high-quality, effective, clinical interventions and supports within them.
Web site: http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/programs/ta_center/TrainingInstitutes/
TI2008/TI08_std_web.pdf