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Turn 2 Us: Supporting Mental Health Literacy of School Personnel in Majority Latinx, Urban Elementary Schools

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Abstract

School-age children frequently present with mental health (MH) problems in school, affecting their academic experience and outcomes. However, school staff report difficulty in identifying and managing such problems. We aimed to determine whether a mental health literacy (MHL) intervention was effective at improving MHL for staff in an urban, predominately Latinx elementary school. A pre/post quasi-experimental design was used. A 20-week MHL intervention that is comprehensive (i.e., not disorder specific) and tiered (i.e., universal as well as targeted services for those with greater needs) was provided as part of an existing school-based mental health prevention and promotion program. A survey adapted from validated measures of MH knowledge and attitudes (including self-efficacy and stigma), as well as use of student support services, was simultaneously administered to staff at the intervention school and a matched comparison school before and after the intervention. Linear and logistic regressions assessed whether changes in MHL and rates of MH referrals varied by school. After controlling for pre-intervention scores, staff in the intervention school had significantly higher knowledge scores (data), higher self-efficacy scores (data), and lower stigma scores (data) in the post-intervention period compared to the comparison school. Following the intervention, more staff in the intervention school reported utilizing student supports to discuss student needs (OR 5.8, 95% CI 2.3–14.6). This intervention, which utilizes a social–ecological framework and tiered approach, led to improvements in MHL of school staff, which may facilitate staff ability to identify and support students’ MH needs.

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Data and Code Availability

Questions related to the data and results in this study can be directed to the corresponding author (eb283@cumc.columbia.edu).

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Acknowledgements

A special thank you to New York-Presbyterians' Ambulatory Care Network, Derek Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation, the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center, the public elementary schools involved in this study for their ongoing support to mental health promotion and prevention, and Margaret Ding for her support.

Funding

The Turn 2 Us program receives funding from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the Turn 2 Foundation. No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, USA

    Evelyn Montañez, Julie Flanagan & Zoe Verzani

  2. Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA

    Morgan A. Finkel & Evelyn Berger-Jenkins

  3. Third Sector Capital Partners, Boston, USA

    Chelsea Haley

Authors
  1. Evelyn Montañez
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  2. Morgan A. Finkel
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  3. Julie Flanagan
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  4. Chelsea Haley
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  6. Evelyn Berger-Jenkins
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by MF, EM, JF and EB-J. The first draft of the manuscript was written by EM. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript”.

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Correspondence to Evelyn Berger-Jenkins.

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The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics Approval

Approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics committee of Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (Ethics Approval Number: AAAP7010). The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants.

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Montañez, E., Finkel, M.A., Flanagan, J. et al. Turn 2 Us: Supporting Mental Health Literacy of School Personnel in Majority Latinx, Urban Elementary Schools. School Mental Health 15, 1102–1112 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-023-09605-x

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