2024 CDE Fall Conference: Creating a Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging

Schools can play a powerful role in the prevention and intervention of substance misuse with students. For students to succeed in school, substance use and other risk behaviors should be addressed as they can have a negative impact on future academic and career outcomes.

Per House Bill 23-1009, the Secondary School Student Substance Use Committee developed a report to support secondary schools in building systems that identify students who need substance use treatment and subsequently provide needed interventions, resources and referrals. Join us to learn more about the recommendations in the report and identify how your school can help address and support student needs.

Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the report recommendations to utilize Multi-Tiered Systems and Support (MTSS) and the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral (SBIRT) models to prevent, identify and address student needs for behavioral health supports.
2. Identify available resources and tools to appropriately address and support student substance misuse needs.
3. Relate the information to what is currently available in their setting to modify or enhance existing systems to meet student substance use needs.

Mental health screening can serve as a powerful tool for schools in determining school-wide, classroom, and individual student needs. This presentation will begin with a brief discussion of what mental health screening is and isn’t as well as why it’s important in schools. Resources to support mental health screening will be presented, with the goal of providing participants with a clear understanding of the steps necessary for planning and implementing screening as well as the access to a curated set of tools needed to do so.

Session Objectives:

Participants will be able to:
(1) define mental health screening and its importance in schools
(2) describe the steps necessary to plan for and implement mental health screening
(3) navigate a curated set of resources and tools designed to support schools in carrying out these steps