EXPANDING SCHOOL BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES Advancing mental health in schools is about much more than expanding services and creating full service schools. It is about stressing the importance of school-community-home collaborations and weaving together the resources for comprehensive, multifaceted approaches that strengthen students, families, schools, and communities. The Community Backyard is working with groups in Orange and Chatham counties to assess the needs of schools and children, and to begin the work of expanding school based mental health in our counties’ three school systems. We are inspired the two national centers whose work is devoted to this area: UCLA School Mental Health Project Center for Mental Health in Schools http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/ Center for School Mental Health Assistance University of Maryland Department of Psychiatry http://csmha.umaryland.edu/ Our efforts have inspired the North Carolina State Collaborative for System of Care to form a School Mental Health Services Subcommittee to look into program planning statewide. Additionally, The Community Backyard has been invited to work with the School Mental Health Project (http://eahec.ecu.edu/smhp.cfm), funded by The Duke Endowment and developed by the Eastern Area Health Education Center, to plan a statewide school mental health colloquium in Fall, 2005. The School Mental Health Project has developed the first course in its online Training Series, A Comprehensive Approach to School Mental Health. It is available for a registration fee of $25.00 at: http://aheconnect.com/smhp.cfm. Home • Who We Are • What We Do • Resources • Publications • Contact Us The Community Backyard is a program of Mental Health Association of Orange County (MHA), a 501c-3 non-profit organization. The Community Backyard • The Veneable Building • 302 W. Weaver Street • Carrboro, NC • 27510 919-942-8083 • bguthrie@mhaoc.com