Serving the Most Severe of Serious Emotionally Disturbed Students in School Settings

Abstract

An increasing number of children and youth enrolled in public schools have severe psychiatric disturbances, yet few school systems are adequately prepared to meet the needs of this population. This unfortunate scenario arises in part from a relative dearth of school-based models that are effective and affordable for working with youngsters with serious emotional disturbances. This chapter focuses on children with extreme forms of psychopathology and very poor adaptive functioning. Many school and community mental health settings label this group of children as having serious emotional disturbance (SED) for purposes of funding and access to services. In this chapter we briefly review the approaches schools have taken to serve children with SED. Next, we discuss general tenets of successful school-based mental health programs. Last, with a foundation in best practices, increased accessibility, and ecological validity, we present a school-based program for children encountering severely debilitating SED that is developing empirical validation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)