Evaluating Strategies to Promote Effective, Multidisciplinary Team Collaboration in School Mental Health

Overview

Journal J Appl Sch Psychol

Date 2023 May 19

PMID 37207133

Authors

Jill H Bohnenkamp

Chandni Patel

Elizabeth Connors

Shawn Orenstein

Sabrina Ereshefsky

Nancy Lever

Sharon Hoover

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Multidisciplinary teams of school- and community-employed mental health, health, and educational staff work together in schools to offer a full continuum of mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment services and supports. Intentional teaming structures and practices are essential to ensure teams deliver effective, coordinated services and supports. The current study investigated the extent to which continuous quality improvement strategies improved school mental health team performance during a 15-month national learning collaborative for 24 school district teams. All teams significantly improved their average teaming performance from baseline to the end of the collaborative ((20) = -5.20, < .001). Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles allowed teams to rapidly evaluate specific quality improvement changes to improve their performance. Teams with the most improvement focused on increasing multidisciplinary team membership, avoiding duplication and promoting efficiency, and connecting to community mental health providers/resources.

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