Educating the Whole Child Summit 2021

A Virtual Event - February 24, 2021

Each year the Indiana School Mental Health Initiative hosts a summit designed to bring together educators, mental health professionals, and community partners to engage in a day of learning and collaboration. This year's summit will be a virtual event.  At the summit, we'll share learnings and progress from across Indiana on how school districts and their community partners are building the capacity to address the development of the whole child within school frameworks and improvement plans. As important as the “how” is, the Summit also clearly address the “why,” and the importance of doing so to change belief systems about behavior and learning.

Learn more and register

COVID-19 Resources for Mental Health

Acknowledging the impact of COVID-19 on every aspect of our society, we recognize the toll it has taken on individual’s mental health. The entire ISMHI website contains topics and information that are relevant now and into the future.

View COVID-19 Resources

At the same time, there are specific mental health resources from the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community related to COVID-19.

Visit the Institute site

What We Do

Our mission at the Indiana School Mental Health Initiative is to work alongside school districts and community partners to create a community of practice by providing resources, consultation, professional development, and education that promote and sustain the social, emotional, behavioral, mental, and physical health of Indiana’s school-aged children.

The reason we do this work is because we know through our practice and our research that children with stressed brains perform considerably less well in school than those children who are able to come to school prepared to learn. Our work is focused on ensuring that all children, regardless of circumstance, are provided with the social emotional skills and good mental health needed to be successful. Each day we strive to assist schools and community partners in creating the conditions for learning for all of Indiana’s school-aged children.

Learn more about us

700+Indiana educators, community mental health providers and related professionals came together to plan school district implementation of mental health support at ISMHI’s 2nd Annual Educating the Whole Child Summit in 2020.

10 yearsOn average there is a 10 year delay between children first displaying symptoms of mental health problems and getting help.   (Khan, 2016)

16.5% childrenIn the USA 16.5% of children (7.7 million) have at least one mental health disorder. With individual states ranging from 7.6% (Hawaii) to 27.2% (Maine).   (Whitney & Peterson, 2019)

References

Khan L. (2016) Missed opportunities. A review of recent evidence into children and mental health. Centre for Mental Health. https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-09/CentreforMentalHealth_MissedOpportunities.pdf

Whitney, D.G. & Peterson, M.D. (2019). US National and State-Level Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders and Disparities of Mental Health Care Use in Children. JAMA Pediatrics,173(4), 389–391. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.5399