September 2006
Family Involvement
When the School Mental Health Project conducted focus groups with public school personnel in the spring of 2003 (http://www.eahec.ecu.edu/smhpdocs/focusgroup.pdf), the importance of the influence of family on the student, both positive and negative, was emphasized. Schools must consider family influence on the child’s readiness to learn. Thus, the Article of the Month offers some resources on family involvement from the school mental health perspective.
Adelman and Taylor, Co-directors of the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA, developed a three-component policy framework for school reform: an Instructional Component, a Management Component and a Learning Supports Component. The Learning Supports Component is often overlooked or is not on the same level of importance as the other two. Yet, Adelman and Taylor contend that any school reform that leads to healthier students who perform better academically cannot occur without an equal focus on the Learning Supports Component. Three of the six key areas in the Learning Supports Component involve families:
(See School Improvement Planning...What's Missing?, pages 3-6)
The National Center for Children in Poverty (http://nccp.org/) published an excellent report called Challenges and Opportunities in Children’s Mental Health: A View from Families and Youth (http://nccp.org/pub_ucr06a.html) that gives the perspectives of families. You can read the executive summary or the full report.
The Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health (http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/) offers a number of articles about family involvement. To see those articles, click on this website http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/pgPublications.php. In the phrase 1 line, type “family involvement.” Scroll down and click on Get. You will get a list of helpful articles.
Another good resource from the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health (http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/) is a handbook called The Wraparound Process for Families: User’s Guide. It can be found at http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/PDF/pbWraparound_Family_Guide.pdf.
The National Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (http://www.tapartnership.org/) publishes a monthly newsletter. The August 2005 edition features an article on the necessity of families and professionals working together. It is entitled Parent/Professional Collaboration in Children’s Mental Health: The Role of Family Advocates (http://www.tapartnership.org/news/Aug05/familymatter.htm).