National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention

Resources in Response to the Virginia Tech Tragedy
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the shootings at Virginia Tech. As details unfold surrounding the shootings on the Virginia Tech University campus, each of us feels its impact personally. This tragedy reminds us of the significance of and commitment to the prevention work that Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees carry out each day.

In response to this tragedy, the National Center has assembled some reliable resources to help you to respond to school and community needs (http://www.promoteprevent.org/VA_tragedy_resources.htm).

Information Sharing—FERPA/PPRA
A resource page on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) is now up on the National Center’s Web site. FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. PPRA gives parents the right to inspect instructional materials used in research funded by the U.S. Department of Education and obligates researchers to obtain parental consent before their child participates in research studies. To learn more, please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/resources/resource_pages/
program_functions/FERPA.htm.

Evidence-Based Intervention Fact Sheet: Across Ages
The National Center has published a new fact sheet on Across Ages, an evidence-based mentoring program that pairs adult mentors over age 50 with youth ages 9 to 13. The goal of the program is to enhance the resiliency of children in order to promote positive development and prevent involvement in high-risk behaviors. To read the Fact Sheet on Across Ages, please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/documents/EBI/Across_Ages.pdf. To view all of our EBI Fact Sheets, please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/publications/evidence_based/.

New Members on Grantee Council
The National Center is pleased to announce that three new members have joined the Grantee Council. Leah Fichtner, 2003 project director for Hartford Public Schools, Connecticut; Janet Goodliffe, 2005 project director for Madison School District, Idaho; and Rick Montalvo, 2006 project director for San Benito Consolidated Independent School District, Texas. The Grantee Council is a forum for gaining insight into and giving feedback on how to provide technical assistance to best meet grantee needs. The Grantee Council is made up of former and current SS/HS project directors who represent diverse demographic and programmatic characteristics.

Participate in the Upcoming National Center Teleconferences
The National Center will host two teleconferences in May:

In addition, the SS/HS Communications Team will host the following teleconference:

Resources from March Teleconferences
Notes and a full audio recording from the March 22, 2007 teleconference, “Implementing Evidence-Based Interventions with Fidelity,” have been posted on the National Center’s Web site. The following topics were discussed: defining fidelity and adaptation; the advantages and disadvantages of replication versus adaptation; guidelines for adaptation; and ways to monitor fidelity across multiple program sites. The summary of the presentation outlines several points around fidelity and seven adaptation guidelines. http://www.promoteprevent.org/documents/EBI/EBIs_with_fidelity.pdf
To view the notes, please visit http://learn.aero.und.edu/pages.asp?PageID=98924.
For an audio recording of this teleconference, please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/32207audio.asx.

The CASEL teleconference of March 14, 2007 focused on social and emotional learning and provided tools to SS/HS sites to engage partners in SEL/prevention programming. WeGo Together for Kids (a 2005 SS/HS grantee) briefly shared how they are using SEL concepts to achieve the goals of their project. Notes will be available shortly.

This section summarizes key findings from a current research study in the field of education, mental health, violence prevention, or youth substance abuse prevention. Research Notes are linked to the full report when available online.

Contributing to the Field
The developers of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) test and evaluate their programs so they can learn not merely if the program will work, but under what circumstances. For a program to be useful in the “real world,” developers must be able to provide practitioners like you with the following information: for whom does the program work; what elements of the program are critical and cannot be changed; and how the program might be changed in specific circumstances or for particular audiences without diminishing its effectiveness. But prevention program developers, no matter how well funded, can never hope to test every aspect of a program under every possible implementation circumstance—to find out, for example, if the program works as well for children whose first language is Spanish rather than English or if the program can be condensed to fit into a summer school session rather than two semesters. Yet these are precisely the types of questions that practitioners in school systems often ask about these programs.

These are also the kinds of questions that practitioners who have adapted programs can help answer, particularly if they have carefully evaluated the adaptations. And this is why Mark Greenberg and his colleagues at Pennsylvania State University’s Prevention Research Center, in their report, The Study of Implementation in School-Based Preventive Interventions: Theory, Research, and Practice, recommended that practitioners “provide feedback to program developers on the intervention, the implementation system, and the factors that affected implementation quality and contextual details regarding scaling-up efforts”—a practice that would let school staff make a contribution to the field of prevention at the same time as they are contributing to prevention efforts in their own school or district.

This research note was drawn from The Study of Implementation in School-Based Preventive Interventions: Theory, Research, and Practice, by Mark Greenberg, Celene Domitrovich, Patricia Graczyk, and Joseph Zins (Washington D.C.: Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005) It can be downloaded at www.prevention.psu.edu/pubs/documents/CMHS_Implementation_report.pdf.

Trauma Resources
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has a knowledge bank Web site (http://kb.nctsn.org/SPT--Home.php) with resources on various issues around child trauma. Some pertinent articles include: “The Handbook of Frequently Asked Questions Following Traumatic Events: Violence, Disasters, or Terrorism"; “Building Community Resilience for Children and Families”; and “Culture and Trauma Brief: Preliminary Adaptations for Working with Traumatized Latino/Hispanic Children and Their Families.”

Assessing Substance Use and Abuse among Adolescents: A Guide for Out-of-School Time Program Practitioners
This brief guide gives some background information on drug and alcohol use among adolescents in high school, including prevalence rates. It describes the signs and symptoms of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, including physical and psychological changes. The guide also gives an eight-question assessment to use in an evaluation or outcome study to assess substance use among adolescents in your programs. The full brief is available at http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Substance%20Use.pdf.

Assessing the Mental Health of Adolescents: A Guide for Out-of-School Time Program Practitioners
Out-of-school time programs need to be aware of potential mental health problems among adolescents and to be able to recognize their symptoms, since unresolved issues can lead to other difficulties, including substance use, school dropout, and antisocial behavior. This brief summarizes the signs and symptoms of depression, suicide risk, and anxiety disorders and suggests research questions that can aid programs in screening/monitoring mental health issues. Additional program resources on these topics are also provided. The brief is available at http://www.childtrends.org/Files//MentalHealth.pdf.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day
Systems of Care Communities, a SAMHSA-funded program, is planning and coordinating activities for National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, which will take place on May 8, 2007. This year’s theme is Thriving in the Community, and SAMHSA encourages all SS/HS grantees to participate and plan activities to raise awareness about this important issue. For more information on this event, please visit http://systemsofcare.samhsa.gov/nationalawareness/materials.aspx.

The Grant Opportunities page is updated regularly with new announcements of available public and private grant competitions. Here is just one of the listings you'll find:

Title: Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Grant Program
Funder: U.S. Department of Education
Description: The grant supports efforts by local education agencies (LEAs) to improve and strengthen their school emergency management plans, including training school personnel and students in emergency response procedures; communicating emergency plans and procedures with parents; and coordinating with local law enforcement, public safety, public health, and mental health agencies.
Award: $100,000-$500,000, depending on size of school (73 awards)
Eligibility: LEAs
Deadline: May 21, 2007
For more information: http://www.ed.gov/programs/dvpemergencyresponse/index.html

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

Date: May 23–25, 2007
Location: Lancaster, South Carolina
Title: Prevention of Youth Substance Abuse in Rural Communities: Bridging Science and Practice
Sponsor: Children's Council
Description: Bridging Science and Practice is a training conference that emphasizes the unique challenges of conducting youth prevention in rural communities. The conference was founded by a successful prevention coalition to raise awareness of the plight that many rural communities face with regard to the growth of youth substance abuse.
Web site: http://www.RuralPrevConf.com

Date: May 31–June 2, 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
Title: Effective Services for All: Strategies to Promote Mental Health and Thriving for Underserved Children and Families
Sponsor: The Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health
Description: The national conference will provide state of the science and best practice information addressing the question, “How can we best provide effective, culturally appropriate services and reduce access and quality disparities for underserved and/or poorly served children and youth with emotional and mental health challenges and their families?” These issues will be addressed by invited experts in plenary sessions and through presentation of individual papers and symposia. The conference also promotes programs and practices to increase family and youth participation and empowerment; family-centered, youth-guided, and culturally competent services; and building the capacity of communities to support children and families.
Web site: http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/conference/pgMain.php