The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #46643

Eve Moscicki, ScD, MPH, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8209, MSC 9663, Rockville, MD 20852-9663, 301-443-3775, em15y@nih.gov, Philip Graham, Dr PH, Research Traingle Institute, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, James Trudeau, Ph D, Research Triangle Institute, 3040 Cornwallis Rd., Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, Ken Feske, Prgram Director Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative Salinas, CA, 546 Lincoln Ave, Salinas, CA 93901, and Mary Evans, PhD, Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd, Tampa, FL 33567.

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative represents a major collaborative effort among the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services to provide students, schools, and communities with enhanced comprehensive educational, mental health, social service, law enforcement, and as appropriate, juvenile justice system services that promote healthy childhood development, and prevent violence, alcohol, and other drug use. The initiative requires each local education agency (LEA) to strategically address six domains using an integrated, comprehensive approach: school safety, safe school policies, education reform; alcohol, tobacco, and other drug and violence prevention; mental health preventive and treatment intervention services; and early childhood development. The initiative currently includes 97 sites in 40 states across the United States. The SS/HS National Evaluation is collecting and analyzing data to assess the overall impact of the initiative across all SS/HS sites. In the spring of 2001, RTI International and RMC Research Corporation conducted the initial wave of data collection for cohorts 1 & 2 sites (N=77). The purpose of this symposium is to 1) describe the key features of the SS/HS Initiative; 2) provide findings from the initial wave of data collection; 3) provide findings from a local SS/HS site; and 4) discuss the implications of the SS/HS approach for healthy development and violence prevention.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this symposium, the participant will be able to

• Describe the key features of the SS/HS Interdepartmental Initiative;
• Describe the key features and challenges of the SS/HS National Evaluation;
• Provide a general description of SS/HS local partnerships;
• Examine how partnership charactersitics impact perceptions of functioning and formation;
• Describe how SS/HS sites have attempted to integrate services within their local community;
• Describe initial findings from selected SS/HS surveys from Wave 1.

Keywords: Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Prevention

Related Web page: www.sshsevaluation.org/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.