Educators and Other Youth-Serving Adults

Being an educator can be a challenge, particularly when faced with the mental health needs of students. Fortunately, there are resources, programs and campaigns available to help support schools, teachers, and students. 

Want to learn more aboutmental health?

Encourage Hope and Help has your back! Check out the links below to learn more about various mental health topics. 

Insights For Educators

Learn how stress and trauma affect the brain, and how the resulting effect can impact learning in this 5-video series by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD and PBS Learning Media. 

Programs & Campaigns

Signs of Suicide (SOS)
The Signs of Suicide Program (SOS) is unique among school-based suicide prevention programs as it incorporates two prominent suicide prevention strategies into a single program: an educational curriculum that raises awareness about suicide and depression, and a brief screening for depression.
Learn More
How Full Is Your Cup?
Lawson CIA members were concerned about their student body when it came to dealing with life's pressures, demands, and traumas. To help their peers avoid unhealthy coping strategies, they developed the "How Full is Your Cup?" campaign.
Learn More
Talk Dot
If a student needs to talk to someone about something they are going through, the blue dot symbolizes a safe place for conversation.
Click Here
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Helpful Links

  • Youth.gov – for resources to help create, maintain, and strengthen effective youth programs.
  • SchoolSafety.gov – for resources to help schools prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a range of school safety threats, hazards, and emergency situations.
  • StopBullying.gov – provides information from various government agencies on what bullying is, what cyberbullying is, who is at risk, and how you can prevent and respond to bullying. 

Tools

Developed by the MHTTC Network Coordinating Office and National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) to help states, districts, and schools advance comprehensive school mental health, as well as engage in a planning process around implementation of services.

Modules align with the national performance domains and indicators established as part of the National Quality Initiative on School Health, and includes tools and resources to support learning extensions for adaptation for different regions, states, and districts. 

Core Components:

  • Educators and Student Instructional Support Personnel
  • Collaboration and Teaming
  • Multi-Tiered System of Supports
  • Evidence-Informed Services and Supports
  • Cultural Responsiveness and Equity
  • Data-Driven Decision Making

Included:

  • Trainer and participant manuals
  • 8 module slide decks designed for delivery in one-hour sessions
  • Recorded virtual learning sessions

For more information, click here! Fill out this form to request this resource. Check out the National School Mental Health Best Practices Index: A Supplementary Guide.

The SHAPE system was developed by the NCSMH at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. It is a free, private, web-based portal that offers a virtual workspace for school mental health teams at school, district, and state levels to document, track, and advance quality and sustainability improvement goals as well as assess trauma responsiveness. Also offered is access to free action planning, mapping, program implementation resources and other critical tools to advance comprehensive school mental health systems. The SHAPE system was updated in 2019 to include resources expanding the capacity of the state dashboard to allow for viewing of progress across regions, and offering districts and states a more targeted and personalized action planning and mapping process for quality improvement in school mental health. Core Components:
  • School and District Profiles
  • Quality Assessment and Resources
  • State/Territory and District Dashboard
  • Screening and Assessment Library
  • Trauma Responsive Schools Assessment
Click here to learn more!
This guide takes a deeper look into the challenges LGBTQIA+ students face in the classroom, in hospitals and clinics, and on college campuses. It offers actionable solutions to the education- and healthcare-related barriers LGBTQIA+ students must overcome.

Click here to learn more!

Video Gallery

Other Resources

Preventing Suicide: The Role of High School Teachers

School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth

Fostering School Connectedness (Administrators)

Fostering School Connectedness (Teachers)

After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools, 2nd edition

Youth Suicide Prevention and Awareness Model Policy