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Leveraging Community-University Partnerships to Build Capacity for Effective School Mental Health

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Handbook of School Mental Health

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

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Abstract

Implementation of successful school mental health (SMH) programs requires high levels of resources. In partnering with community organizations or academic institutions, schools may be better able to pool community resources, increase their capacity, and facilitate quality implementation of SMH programs that benefit students’ well-being. Community organizations, universities, and schools, however, operate in different contexts with varying goals, needs, and restrictions. This chapter describes the situations in which community-university partnerships for SMH benefit partners and student outcomes. It then describes potential challenges and pitfalls that might disrupt progress of a community-university partnership for SMH. The second half of the chapter summarizes practical recommendations from the literature, offering a user guide for practitioners, university personnel, and school staff interested in pursuing a community-university partnership. Throughout the chapter, short narratives provided by stakeholders with relevant experience describe how community-university partnerships can be formed, overcome challenges, and achieve success for students’ mental health.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank those who shared their experiences of working within university-community partnerships. Through these discussions, we were better able to capture the nuances, challenges, and benefits of community-university partnerships. Thank you to the following individuals who contributed to the stories included in this chapter: Samantha Bates, PhD; Noelle Britt; Brian Daniels, PhD; Angelic Dean, MS; Nancy Eigel-Miller; Jim Grim, MA; Arlene Herman, MSW; Aidyn Iachini, PhD, LSW; Elizabeth Koschmann, PhD; Julie Owens, PhD; Jill Paladino, MPH.; Deb Robison, LSW; Sandra Savage, MSW, RSW; Terry Spencer, MEd; Katlin Tollison, LCSW-S; and Jennifer Vichich, MPH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    Katelyn Wargel-Fisk, Amy Kerr, Jack Baker & Paul Flaspohler

Authors
  1. Katelyn Wargel-Fisk
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  2. Amy Kerr
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  3. Jack Baker
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  4. Paul Flaspohler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Flaspohler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Steven W. Evans

  2. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Julie Sarno Owens

  3. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Catherine P. Bradshaw

  4. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Mark D. Weist

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Wargel-Fisk, K., Kerr, A., Baker, J., Flaspohler, P. (2023). Leveraging Community-University Partnerships to Build Capacity for Effective School Mental Health. In: Evans, S.W., Owens, J.S., Bradshaw, C.P., Weist, M.D. (eds) Handbook of School Mental Health. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20006-9_16

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