Supporting School Mental Health Providers: Evidence from a Short-Term Telementoring Model

Abstract

Background To support student mental health, school staff must have knowledge of evidence-based practices and the capacity to implement them. One approach used to address this challenge is a group-based telementoring model called Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO). In other applications (e.g., healthcare settings), ECHO has been shown to increase healthcare professionals’ self-efficacy and knowledge of evidence-based practices leading to improved patient outcomes. Objectives This study examined the potential for ECHO to be used as a method for increasing school staff engagement and knowledge of evidence-based school mental health practices. Methods Using a quasi-experimental design, this study compared outcomes across two professional development experiences aimed at promoting school staff ability to provide evidence-based mental health services. School staff from four school districts participated in a school mental health training initiative. All participants ( N = 57) had access to asynchronous, online mental health modules. A sub-sample ( n = 33) was also offered monthly ECHO sessions. Results Tests of group difference in outcomes revealed significant increases in engagement with online learning ( d = 0.58) and satisfaction ( d = 0.82) for those who participated in ECHO as compared to those who did not. Knowledge about evidence-based practices was not significantly different between groups. Conclusions Results suggest that group-based telementoring may be a promising approach for improving engagement and satisfaction with training initiatives aimed at promoting evidence-based school mental health practices. However, further study of ProjectECHO using experimental designs is needed to make causal inferences about its effect on provider outcomes.

Utilizing a Telementoring Model to Promote the Evidence-Based School Counseling Model

“…Compared to Modules only participants, ECHO + Modules participants demonstrated significantly greater improvements in their collaborative processes ( d = 1.22), and effect size estimates revealed moderate positive impacts of ECHO on participants’ knowledge of evidence-based and culturally competent practices. Like previous studies, we found that ECHO participation was associated with increased engagement with supplementary learning modules (Lyons et al, 2022). However, Modules only participants who returned post-training surveys demonstrated similar levels of module engagement as those in the ECHO condition.…”

“…When professional development is delivered in short bursts, it rarely contributes to long-term, sustainable change (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017). The ECHO model offers an accessible, reliable, low-cost, and scalable platform for prolonged engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration (Lyons et al, 2022). These factors are critical to consider when selecting professional learning/training for school counselors.…”

“…Although school counselors believe research is important, almost half of those surveyed noted that they are unlikely to seek information from scholarly sources when faced with a problem of practice. ECHOs provide an ideal format to facilitate the transfer of research evidence between university faculty and practitioners (Lyons et al, 2022). Practitioners could benefit from regularly scheduled interdisciplinary consultation/supervision groups with counselor educators following the ECHO model (Brott et al, 2021; Lyons et al, 2022).…”

“…ECHOs provide an ideal format to facilitate the transfer of research evidence between university faculty and practitioners (Lyons et al, 2022). Practitioners could benefit from regularly scheduled interdisciplinary consultation/supervision groups with counselor educators following the ECHO model (Brott et al, 2021; Lyons et al, 2022). Specifically, those who have limited access to a collaborative network or who work in isolation (i.e., rural, small, or elementary settings) could develop and/or strengthen EBSC practices utilizing a telementoring model.…”

“…Using a mixed-methods intervention design, we conducted summative evaluation of Year 2 training activities. Program evaluation results from Year 1 and formative evaluation results of Year 2 indicated that ECHO participation was associated with greater satisfaction and engagement with training activities and with greater gains in EBP and interprofessional collaboration skills than asynchronous professional development opportunities (Lyons et al, 2022, Zabek et al, 2022). The present study utilized concurrent quantitative (pre/post measures of participants’ school mental health competencies) and qualitative (postintervention focus groups with ECHO participants) data collection methods to facilitate data triangulation and comprehensively evaluate the Year 2 implementation of training activities (Nastasi et al, 2007).…”