Children come to school with many different perceptions – and misconceptions – about themselves, others and future prospects. Helping children understand the tools of perceiving automatic thoughts and changing them is a basic strategy for building resilient adults. Schools also should teach children that they are responsible for their own actions and that the choices they make have consequences for which they will be held accountable.
The school may be the most logical place for a comprehensive suicide intervention effort because it is the common element that all communities share, regardless of their size, and all children must attend. Every state has laws that mandate school attendance and, it is fair to say that, with the exception of the home, children spend more time in schools than any other place.
Human service managers today are intrigued by outcomes. It is a fad which is given a great deal of “lip service” but very little of anything else. We rationalize that the field is not far enough along to be able to define outcomes. Or we don’t have time, because of day-to-day crises. The real reason is often that we know we are not as effective as we would like to be, so we don’t want to be held accountable.
For purposes of implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has provided federal regulations that define related services and require that local education agencies provide, among other things, psychological counseling services to children with disabilities who need them to benefit from special education.
This paper is generally adapted from material from the Cancer Prevention Research Center – A research organization dedicated to helping people change their behavior for living longer, healthier lives. It was developed as a discussion paper to determine the efficacy of developing a substance abused program for middle and high school students apprehended using illegal substances.
This is a prevention protocol. Greenberg, et al. have provided a report that identifies critical issues and themes in prevention research with school-age children and families through review and summary of the current state of knowledge on the effectiveness of preventive interventions intended to reduce the risk or effects of psychological disorders in school-age children. The beginning section is a liberal adaptation of the initial section of that report and will provide the basis for the discussion of Culture Restructuring.