Major mental health referral quality improvement project for castle high school staff

ABSTRACT

Background: Many high school students struggle with mental illness, especially since the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Educating high school faculty/staff with basic information to recognize and refer students for mental health concerns may improve faculty/staff knowledge, confidence, and trust in the mental health referral process, which may then increase referrals and subsequent treatment of at-risk youth. Methods: A Quality Improvement Project was conducted by a Hawaiece[yen]i Keiki Nurse Practitioner at a Hawaiece[yen]i public high school to determine if educating high school faculty and staff on identification and referral of high school students displaying signs of mental health distress improves staff knowledge, confidence, and trust in the overall process. The project was conducted by delivering an asynchronous webinar intervention to the faculty and staff. Data was collected via a pre-test, post-test, and a one-month follow-up test by means of a questionnaire. Results: Of the 47 total participants, 37 completed the post-survey, and 25 completed the one-month follow-up survey. Results from the one-month follow-up indicate participant level of confidence (measured on a 5-point Likert scale) in identification of students improved from mean score m = 2.96 (pre-test) to m = 4.12 (1-month follow-up), level of confidence in knowledge of the process improved from m = 2.65 (pre-test) to m = 4.11 (1-month follow-up), and level of trust in the process improved from m = 2.21 (pre-test) to m = 3.20 (1-month follow-up). Conclusion: The intervention was successful in increasing faculty/staff level of confidence in identification of students who may need mental health referrals, level of confidence in the process for referral, and level of trust in the referral process. Participants' scores between the immediate post-test and the one-month follow-up remained relatively consistent over time, indicating effective retention of the material. Recommended future research includes studying the number of referrals made after the intervention, and studying actual outcomes of those referrals among students in order to determine if the intervention improves student mental health outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)