Combining MTSS and Community-Based Mentoring Programs

Journal Community Psychology

Sung

McQuillin

et al. 2022

Self Cite

At present, the mental healthcare system cannot meet the demand for services, and the need-to-access gap is widest among children and adolescents. Single session interventions (SSIs) are brief, intentional, and mechanism-targeted programs that have shown promise in increasing the reach of effective, evidencebased services; yet, a wide gap still remains due to structural barriers (e.g., workforce shortages). The present paper posits the integration of SSIs and mentor-delivered programs as a promising future step to further overcome the inaccessibility of youth mental health services. Capitalizing on the advantages of mentoring relationships (e.g., the associated interpersonal benefits and mentors' pre-existence in most community settings) has potential to complement and enhance the value of SSIs, and to expand the acceptability and reach of evidence-based mental health services. In this paper, we discuss the anticipated benefits of mentor-delivered SSIs, as well as cautionary considerations related to the proposed model. To conclude, we highlight necessary implementation and research implications. MENTOR-DELIVERED SSIs 3Expanding the Reach of Psychosocial Services for Youth: Untapped Potential of Mentor-Delivered Single Session InterventionsDespite modern and ongoing advancements in designing, validating, and disseminating mental health interventions, an estimated 50% of individuals in need of services do not receive treatment (Merikangas et al., 2009). This percentage is higher among children and adolescents (herein, "youth"), due to increases in the prevalence of youth mental health issues and associated needs for treatment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020), and to the shortage and inequitable distribution of professional providers (American Psychological Association [APA], 2015;Thomas et al., 2006) among other structural and stigma-linked challenges. In other words, barriers to accessing and receiving youth mental health services remain rampant, though clinical science has developed and validated treatments for many presenting problems. In the current cultural, health, and sociopolitical landscape (e.g., the increasing visibility of discrimination and prejudice, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), this need-to-access gap is expected to maintain or widen as people face increased and new stressors and resources become sparser (

Section: Implementation Contexts and Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Workforce Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Positioning Mentor-delivered Ssis In Existing Care Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expanding the reach of psychosocial services for youth: Untapped potential of mentor‐delivered single session interventions

Journal Community Psychology

Sung

McQuillin

et al. 2022

Self Cite

“…Mentoring has previously been recognized as a viable way to combat some of the systemic barriers commonly faced by individuals from marginalized backgrounds in India. For example, mentoring can address academic/ educational and mental health needs, and in some cases can increase the economic mobility of young participants (Babcock, 2012; Garringer et al, 2017; Hagler, 2018; Hart et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting a School-Based Motivational Interviewing Mentoring Program for Use in India

School Psychology International

Sable²,

Gupta³

et al. 2022

Self Cite

We report on the process of planning, adapting, and implementing a brief, instrumental, school-based mentoring curriculum originally developed in the United States, in three cities in India. India has the world’s largest population of young adults aged 10-24 years, a developmental period associated with heightened psychosocial stressors and the onset of mental health issues, as well as a dire shortage of mental health professionals. Moving services that are typically provided by highly skilled professionals to individuals with fewer credentials or less formal training (e.g., from psychologists to mentors) can increase access to adolescent mental health services. Yet, transferring programs internationally is accompanied by unique barriers including cultural differences, and should be guided by an established framework. In this paper, we discuss the formation of a research-practice partnership designed to generate applied knowledge through emic cultural perspectives. We describe each stage of the program adaptation process within the Cultural Adaptation Framework ( Fendt-Newlin et al., 2020 ), including our decisions to strategically adjust, remove, or retain content from the original mentoring intervention. Although program delivery was prematurely discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we provide a brief synopsis of lessons learned through the international partnership.

“…One strategy that has previously been posited and shown promise in addressing youth mental health problems is expanding the SMH workforce to include paraprofessional providers (Hart et al, 2021 ; McQuillin et al, 2015 ). This approach includes task-shifting, which the World Health Organization (WHO, 2008 ) defines as “a process whereby specific tasks are moved, where appropriate, to health workers with shorter training and fewer qualifications” (p. 7).…”

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confidence: 99%

Expanding School-Based Motivational Interviewing Through Delivery by Paraprofessional Providers: A Preliminary Scoping Review

McQuillin

Iachini

et al. 2023

School Mental Health

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The supply of school mental health (SMH) providers and services cannot meet the demand of students in-need, and this gap is expected to widen in coming years. One way to increase the reach of helpful services for youth is to grow the SMH workforce through task-shifting to paraprofessionals. Task-shifting could be especially promising in expanding Motivational Interviewing (MI) interventions, as MI can be molded to target a number of academic and behavioral outcomes important to schools. However, no review of training exclusively paraprofessional samples in MI has yet been conducted. The current paper provides a scoping review of 19 studies of training paraprofessional providers to use MI to evaluate trainee characteristics, training content and format, and outcomes. Of these 19 studies, 15 reported that paraprofessionals improved in using MI following training. Nine studies reported that task-shifting MI was positively received by clients and/or providers. Six studies examined task-shifting MI in youth-serving contexts, and four examined the practice in traditional school contexts, suggesting its potential for use in SMH. Other findings and implications, such as client behavior change and provider fidelity, are shared, along with ideas for advancing research, practice, and policy in this subfield.