Mental Health Consultation
Mental Health Consultation
Behavioral Health Consultation Services consist of community partnerships between the local school district and UR Medicine’s Pediatric Behavioral Health & Wellness service. Our key goal is to strengthen youth’s social and emotional health by increasing the capacity of school staff to work with children with both emotional and behavioral health needs. To accomplish this goal, our partners provide a variety of consultation services within the school setting aimed at increasing students’ appropriate skills and wellness, while decreasing concerns and problem behaviors.
Coaching in Implementation & Program Development
The most effective training programs combine educator training with technical assistance and consultation around implementation (Gibson et al., 2014). Thus, the purpose of these coaching sessions is to provide opportunity for trouble-shooting around implementation of previously learned skills and strategies with challenging students. This can also include programmatic consultation sessions to develop program-specific plans (e.g., universal screening; identification of strategies to support students’ social and emotional health; resource mapping in the community)
K-12 Behavioral Health Consultation
UR-SOS consultation service brings child and adolescent mental health expertise directly into your school community. Our school mental health consultants collaborate with administrators, teachers, and staff to strengthen schools capacity to meet students’ social, emotional and behavioral needs
How it Works
- Collaborative Problem-Solving- Work together to identify challenges and create effective solutions
- Capacity Building- Empower staff through modeling, coaching, and professional development
- Multi-Tiered Support- Consultation at the individual, group, or school wide level, aligned with MTSS.
- Family & Community Connection- Bridge services between school, home and community resources
- Data-Informed Decisions- Use attendance, behavior, and screening date to guide next steps
Making a Consultation Referral
Any staff member within the school is encouraged to talk about a referral with a member of the school mental health team. All referrals should also be discussed with the appropriate school administrator. To procees with a referral to the consultation program:
A school mental health professional contacts the student’s parent to obtain permission for the referral, and obtain a signed consent form.
The School Mental Health Team Leader must submit the consultation referral form.
Sign up for a consultation time (link)
Student-focused comprehensive assessments
Sometimes, more in-depth comprehensive evaluations are needed to better understand and identify behaviors that drive challenging situations. In these assessments we consider a youth’s wellbeing or difficulties as developing through many interacting factors, such as biological, social/environmental, and psychological. Semi-structured interviews and standardized measures are administered with the youth, family, and school team to identify specific areas of strength and difficulty. Diagnostic feedback is provided to families and school teams, with explicit recommendations and resources to help manage challenging behaviors. When indicated, referrals for community behavioral health services or resources will be provided. Consent and participation from identified youth, families, and the student’s school team is required, and communication with any outside providers is strongly encouraged. (3-4 hours)
Early Childhood Behavioral Health Consultation
Our team provides a variety of consultation services to leaders and educators who work with our community’s youngest children (ages 0 – 5) in childcare and preschool settings. Our consultation services aim to increase children’s wellness as well as to decrease and prevent social, emotional, and behavioral concerns. Our primary goal is to strengthen children’s social and emotional health by supporting educators, leaders, and families to promote all children’s wellbeing and to effectively support children with emotional and behavioral health needs.
Through face-to-face behavioral health consultation sessions with early childhood educators and leaders, our team helps identify prevention and intervention strategies to collaboratively develop plans to address complex challenges. Then, we provide support to implement strategies in the classroom. We also work with leaders to identify and implement programmatic improvements to increase the social and emotional wellbeing of all children enrolled in the program. For example, we offer professional development workshops on a variety of early childhood topics, including classroom management strategies, teaching social and emotional skills, and working with children with particular behavioral health diagnosis. Additionally, we partner with families for consultation and when needed, referrals for community behavioral health services or resources. For consultation regarding individual children, permission from the child’s caregiver is required. Finally, we offer family workshops for caregivers on early childhood topics, such as handling challenging behavior.
School Mental Health Quality Improvement using the SHAPE System
Our QI methods utilize the SHAPE System (School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation). SHAPE is a free, web-based platform that enables schools, districts, and state entities to assess and improve their comprehensive mental health systems across key domains—such as teaming, resource mapping, screening, promotion and treatment services, funding sustainability, and impact—through structured assessments, data-driven reports, and a robust resource library.
Learn more about the SHAPE system