A Phenomenological Investigation of Universal Mental Health Screening: Making Meaning for School Counseling

Abstract

In the United States, K–12 schools have been going through a double pandemic: the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing systemic racial injustices. Multitiered systems of support (MTSS), including universal mental health screening (UMHS), are highly recommended to assist students through these pandemics. While research on MTSS for school counselors is ample, school counseling UMHS literature is much more limited. As such, in the present study, we conducted a phenomenological investigation of participants’ experiences with UMHS, recruiting multidisciplinary, school-based UMHS team members, particularly school counselors. In describing the essence of participants’ experiences with UMHS, we identified 2 themes. The first theme is UMHS shifting the school culture, with subthemes (a) prioritizing prevention, (b) increasing collaboration, (c) using data, (d) gaining a holistic perspective, and (e) advocating for school counseling. The second theme is working through roadblocks, with subthemes (a) liability, (b) screener concerns, (c) resistance, (d) lack of time, and (e) staff wellness.

Universal Mental Health Screening: Steps for School Counselors Through Multidisciplinary Teaming

“…In fact, scholars have proposed that school counselors may often be the only school-based mental health provider that all students have access to because other providers (i.e., school psychologists and social workers) may concentrate their time with students needing more advanced tiered supports. Specifically, school counselors' roles in school-based mental health efforts include prevention activities for all students (e.g., Tier 1 classroom lessons and school-wide initiatives) and Tier 2 intervention (e.g., short-term counseling and crisis response for students with elevated needs; ASCA, 2019ASCA, , 2020ASCA, , 2021ASCA, , 2022Goodman-Scott et al, 2020).…”

“…School counselors address students' mental health through their roles as leaders by promoting systemic change and advocacy (ASCA, 2019;Lopez-Perry & Whitson, 2022;Lowe et al, 2018;Pianta & Lopez-Perry, 2019) and participating on multidisciplinary, school-based teams (ASCA, 2019(ASCA, , 2020(ASCA, , 2021(ASCA, , 2022Goodman-Scott et al, 2020). According to the ASCA Ethical Standards (2022), school counselors "collaborate with all relevant partners, including students, school faculty/ staff and parents/guardians, when students need assistance, including when early signs of student distress are identified" (p. 3, code A.6.a).…”

“…School counselors serve their students' mental health needs through both direct and indirect supports. They provide direct services including school counseling classroom instruction and school-wide activities (Tier 1) and small-group and individualized support (Tier 2 and 3); further, they provide indirect support by serving as a consultant and collaborator across all tiers (ASCA, 2019(ASCA, , 2020(ASCA, , 2021Goodman-Scott et al, 2020). Pertaining to UMHS specifically, when a student is identified on a screener as having elevated mental health needs, the UMHS team determines next steps.…”

“…Thus, schools are ideal places to identify and address students' mental health needs (Hoover & Bostic, 2021), including through UMHS. Relatedly, school counselors serve students' academic, career, and social/ emotional needs, and are often members of school-based multidisciplinary UMHS teams (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2019; Goodman-Scott et al, 2020), although this research is lacking (e.g., Donohue et al, 2016;Erickson & Abel, 2013).…”

Psychometric Evaluation of a New Digitally Animated Child Self-Report Assessment Instrument: The Interactive Child Distress Screener

“…Ideally, a screening instrument should be brief, cost-effective, psychometrically sound, and successfully discriminate between children who require further evaluation and those who do not (Goodman-Scott et al, 2019; Ivey, 2020; Newlove-Delgado & Ford, 2020) and to increase accessibility, require no training to procure, administer, and score. A recent review by McCrae and Brown (2018) describes three suitably broad screening instruments for use with school-aged children: the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-2-BESS; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007), the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17; Gardner et al, 1999), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997).…”