Skip to main content

“PACEs

Social, Emotional and Mental Health Literacy in Schools

 

The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defined SEL more than 20 years ago.  In December, 2020 CASEL updated their definition of social and emotional learning (SEL) as "the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities."

SEL is an integral part of education and human development. In a large meta-analysis of 213 studies involving over 270,000, researchers found students gained:
  • Social-emotional skills

  • Improved attitudes about self, others, and school

  • Positive classroom behavior

  • 11 percentile-point gain on standardized achievement tests

(CASEL, 2021)

Mental Health Literacy (MHL) has been found to improve health outcomes and provides the necessary foundation for mental health promotion, prevention, and care.  MHL is defined as:
  • improving understanding of how to obtain / maintain good mental health;
  • improving understanding of various mental disorders and their treatments;
  • decreasing stigma related to mental disorders through peer documentary film stories;
  • increasing connection to treatment and help-seeking
(Kutcher et al, 2016)
Building SEL and MHL are both critical to improving school mental health.  Dr. Greg Firn, former superintendent dives deeply into the topic with me in the below free webinar.   According to recent discussions with thought-leaders at PBIS, it is recommended that SEL is integrated following school mental health and school wide positive behavior supports (Weist et al, 2018).  We are missing the boat if we are excluding Mental Health Literacy (MHL) and mental health education training.  With over 25% of educators experiencing burnout, the growing mental health needs of educators must be addressed through health promotion / mental health literacy training.
Download the handout for this session here.

Add Comment

Comments (0)

Post
Copyright © 2023, PACEsConnection. All rights reserved.
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×