Supporting Mental Health: Engaging Schools and Families with Professor Mark Weist

Guest speaker: Professor Mark Weist (United States)
International leader in school mental health policy and programs.

The Hunter Institute of Mental Health invites professionals who work with young people to attend a specialist development event with international leader in school mental health, Professor Mark Weist.

Participants attending the day will learn about:

• Current evidence base on school mental health
• Strategies and approaches for enhancing school mental health
• Lessons from Professor Weist's research and advocacy work in school mental health, positive behaviour support and family engagement
• Models for integrating service provision as part of school mental health
• How we can close the research practice gap
• Benefits of collaboration and engagement in the development of mental ill health prevention strategies. 

Seminar 1: Advancing School Mental Health (morning session)

This session will provide insights and examples from field of school based mental health on:

1. Increasing awareness and capability in schools to support mental health
2. Strategies for influencing policy and developing new mechanism to support the full continuum of mental health promotion, mental ill health prevention, early intervention and recovery
3. Building the evidence base and developing mechanism to promote its use in schools
4. Developing strategies for stakeholder and family engagement
5. Increase opportunities for networking between practitioners, researchers, stakeholders, advocates, and government officials

Seminar 2: Meaningful family engagement in school mental health (afternoon session)

Effectively working with families underpins virtually all effective interventions in child, youth and school mental health. Strengthening school-family-community partnerships can help to contribute to the promotion of mental health, prevention and early detection of mental ill-health and contribute to recovery.

This workshop will explore Mark’s work on the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) and how it enhances effective mental health delivery through the combined efforts of schools and community partners thus providing opportunity for more potent family engagement to improve outcomes for youth.

About Professor Mark Weist

Mark D. Weist received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech in 1991 after completing his internship at Duke University, and is currently a Professor in Clinical-Community and School Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. He was on the faculty of the University of Maryland for 19 years where he helped to found and direct the Center for School Mental Health (http://csmh.umaryland.edu), one of two national centers providing leadership to the advancement of school mental health (SMH) policies and programs in the United States. 

He has edited ten books and has published and presented widely in SMH and in the areas of trauma, violence and youth, evidence-based practice, cognitive behavioral therapy, Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS), and on an Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) for SMH and PBIS. He is currently co-leading a regional conference on school behavioral health (reflecting integrated SMH and PBIS, see www.schoolbehavioralhealth.org) and leading a randomized controlled trial on the ISF. 

Additional event information

• Door will open at 8:30am for a 9:00am start. Event to close at 3:00pm.
• Event cost includes morning tea and a light lunch. Should you have any special dietary requirements, please email the event organiser prior to the event.
• Parking is available onsite at the Kurri Kurri TAFE campus. Please follow signage when you arrive and park in allocated bays only.
• Accommodation is also available onsite should you wish to stay before or after the event (at your own expense). Download brochure for details.

Should you wish to share this event with your networks, please download the event information flyer.