The immediate period following psychiatric hospitalization is marked by increased risk for suicide behavior and rehospitalization. Because adolescents commonly return to school settings following hospital discharge, school-related stressors and supports are important considerations for psychiatric treatment and discharge planning. The current study aimed to inform recommendations provided by hospitals to schools to improve school reintegration practices by employing a concurrent, mixed-methods design. Specifically, we: (1) surveyed school professionals (
n
= 133) in schools varying in resource availability and populations in one southeastern state of the United States about supports and services provided to returning students; and (2) conducted in-depth interviews with a subset of these professionals (
n
= 19) regarding their perceptions of the hospital to school transition for youth recovering from suicide-related crises. Findings from survey responses indicated that, compared to schools located in urban and suburban areas, schools in rural areas were less likely to have school reintegration protocols for returning students. More generally, however, available interventions and modifications were relatively consistent across rural and urban/suburban schools, schools serving high and low poverty communities, and schools with predominantly white and predominantly ethnic and racial minoritized student bodies. Key themes across interviews signify the importance of communication between stakeholders, the type of information used to develop re-entry plans, available school-based services for returning youth, and the need to mitigate stigma associated with mental health crises. Findings inform recommendations that can be provided by hospitals to schools to support adolescent recovery as they return to school following psychiatric hospitalization.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11126-021-09942-7.
In education, the organization of continuous improvement refers to the structure of social relations between subgroups and institutions working to integrate quality improvement into the daily lives of individuals within the PreK-16 education system. On its own, the term social organization generally refers to patterns of relationships both among and between individuals and groups that persist over time, are interrelated, and affect the operations of the entity as well as the actions of its individual members. In a broad sense, organizations engaged in continuous improvement draw from two theories of organizational learning: Englebart’s stratified model of organizational improvement and Argyris’s single- and double-loop learning. These organizations engage in improvement work with regularity, infusing it into the day-to-day activities of members, and situating problems of practice as the naturally occurring outputs of a system as its currently designed. This article provides an overview of the research on the social organization of continuous improvement in education, highlighting selections that inform how the structures through which people interact enhance or inhibit organizational learning. Organized into nine sections, the article begins with a general overview with key selections from organizational studies and closely related fields that inform today’s understanding of improvement-focused organizations. The second section covers early, seminal texts that apply ideas about organizational learning to educational systems. Next are sections related to the organizational forms in which improvement work in education is occurring: research-practice partnerships; research alliances; networked improvement communities; designed-based research collaboratives; interagency restructuring; and individual schools as improvement organizations. The final section focuses on what’s known about how to lead organizations engaged in continuous improvement. The citations, though not exhaustive, provide a comprehensive overview of the topic and provide an entry point for those looking build or study improvement-focused organizations in education. Citations have been included because of their significance in the field and the lessons they hold for their readers.
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