Comprehensive School Mental Health Framework
The Comprehensive School Mental Health (CSMH) Framework is a comprehensive approach integrated within the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) aimed to provide a continuum of social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health supports and services to support students, families, educators, and all stakeholders within the school community.
Implementing this comprehensive framework is a process. Time, resources, and an ongoing commitment are required. This process can be broken into stages to help guide this work. Each phase of implementation is identified below. To learn more about each phase and find resources for implementation, click on the image.
The Comprehensive School Mental Health Framework provides readers with a comprehensive and systematic approach to holistically address the needs of students, educators, and families. The framework offers guidance within five distinct implementation phases that school leaders can adopt for continuous school community improvements.
A snapshot of each phase is shared here. For more information, see below. You can link to each of the phases below.
The Comprehensive School Mental Health (CSMH) Framework website was created for schools to use in its entirety or by selecting individual sections. The website is organized into six main sections (described below), each containing more specific topics and information. Depending on the local context of your school, as well as your particular role, you may choose to engage with all of the topics or focus on the ones that are most relevant to your needs and/or position. Each webpage contains hyperlinks to “working” documents and/or other websites to support this work.
This first stage discusses the foundational elements within CSMH Framework, including the benefits of implementation. The information shared highlights the rationale (need) for this work as well as outlining the six core components of the CSMH Framework.
The second stage outlines the need to collect data through universal assessments, surveys, and tools to have a clear picture of the strengths, gaps, and resources within the school community. Additionally, this stage discusses the importance of building capacity before moving into the next stage.
This third stage focuses on developing a logic model to identify and outline the necessary infrastructure to begin implementation. It is essential to begin building capacity by identifying champions and coaches to lead this work. Additionally, the leadership team needs to create a comprehensive professional development plan so all stakeholders within the school community receive intentional and ongoing training and support.
The fourth stage is the rollout of the action steps for implementation. Steps include ongoing professional development, data collection and analysis, continuous communication with all stakeholders, and providing CSMH coaching support in each building.
This final stage emphasizes the continuous improvement cycle within effective implementation. Our school communities evolve and change. Ongoing analysis of data to inform what is working and what changes are necessary is vital. Finally, at this stage, it is important to review and ensure the CSMH Framework implementation practices are both horizontally and vertically aligned.
Templates, examples, resources, screening tools, sample activities, and strategies are provided for school use. Additionally, celebration stories from schools are shared.
Funding for the Comprehensive School Mental Health Initiative through Butler University has been provided in part by Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction.
Contact csmh@butler.edu to learn more.