Coordinating Mental Health Supports Across Out-of-School and In-School Providers: A Scoping Review
The coordination of school- and community-based mental health services is a promising strategy to respond to the rising mental health needs of youth. Out-of-school time (OST) programs are an under-utilized community-based resource that may be leveraged to help meet this need. We conducted a scoping...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/6/639 |
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| Summary: | The coordination of school- and community-based mental health services is a promising strategy to respond to the rising mental health needs of youth. Out-of-school time (OST) programs are an under-utilized community-based resource that may be leveraged to help meet this need. We conducted a scoping review to (a) identify practices that facilitate the coordination of care between schools and OST programs and (b) examine whether such practices align with those used in existing models of expanded school mental health (ESMH). EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, PubMed, Google Scholar, ERIC Scopus, MedLine, ScienceDirect, and national organization websites were used to identify articles, including peer-reviewed (<i>n</i> = 2) and grey literature (<i>n</i> = 7) published from 2004 to 2024 that were written in English and described U.S.-based schools and programs. Coordination practices were coded inductively and categorized as a school/program, district/community, or state-level practice. Practices within the <i>vision/mission alignment</i>, <i>coordinating daily operations</i>, <i>training</i>, and <i>resource/information sharing</i> domains were identified at the highest frequency. Many of the strategies identified are included in existing models of ESMH. Thus, expanding coordination models to include OST may be a feasible direction for increasing the capacity of communities to meet the mental health needs of youth. Given the paucity of research in this area, further empirical research is needed. |
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| ISSN: | 2227-7102 |