Community science and expanded school mental health: Bridging the research-to-practice gap to promote child well-being and academic success

Several national initiatives in the United States and reports on mental health and children’s mental health have highlighted the mental health crisis in young people and the need to promote effective delivery of school-based approaches promoting mental health care and preventing disorder. Implementing successful school-based mental health and promoting effective academic, social and emotional learning of children hinges on changing the policies and practices of service systems and shifting relationships among mental health professionals, educators and other school serving professionals. There has been limited focus in school-based (and community-based) clinical practice on fostering collaborative relationships toward implementing empirically supported practice. In addition, there exists a gap between the development and dissemination of empirically supported practices and the training, supervision and supportive infrastructure necessary to implement these effective practices in schools. The emerging field of community science is proposed as a means of bridging this gap between research and practice. Community science is an interdisciplinary framework for strengthening communities by improving the quality of practice in treatment, prevention, health promotion and education. Using the community science framework, this paper outlines critical research-to-practice service delivery, training and technical assistance and policy issues related to the expansion of school-based mental health services and school improvement efforts in the state of Ohio.