Elaine J Brzycki

Mental Health for All Toolkit Elaine J Brzycki

Mental health and well-being for all is possible! This is the only resource available for producing mental health and well-being outcomes in the classroom and at home, through school and home activities. When the self becomes the lens through which students learn, students balance cognitive with non-cognitive factors to become happy and whole people. The Mental Health for All Toolkit provides teachers, school counselors, parents and students with three researched-based high-impact practices that transform students' abilities to achieve mental health and well-being: -Integrated Self Model (iSelf) - a framework to use in the classroom to understand the inner self of students through cognitive and positive psychology attributes -Self Across the Curriculum - a pedagogy to teach self-knowledge as part of subject-matter curricula -Success Predictor - an assessment instrument and intervention tool to help students determine life purpose and dreams Drawing upon our over 30 years of counseling, teaching and research, we have found that school-aged children with psychological well-being have a lower risk of mental health disorders and physical health diagnosis and behaviors such as violence, anxiety, depression, obesity, cutting, substance abuse and bullying. Psychological well-being is an important protective factor to impart in a young person's life in preparation for college and careers, and for a positive life course trajectory. The Mental Health for All Toolkit provides teachers, parents, and students with a new student mental health model based on the latest research in the psychology of well-being and student-centered learning. This model integrates social-emotional competencies, academic competencies, self-knowledge, life purpose and dreams, and whole-child wellness, and helps parents and teachers develop psychologically healthy and self-aware young people. This Mental Health for All Toolkit is organized around the three high-impact practices so as to make it accessible to those who want to use or apply these to their particular situations-teacher, parent, or student. Within each high-impact practice we offer examples or exercises. In addition, the Toolkit high-impact practices have been used in and further enhance these popular school based programs: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Trauma Informed instruction and approaches, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS), among others. This is why we have developed this Mental Health for All Toolkit, so as make certain that we are doing all that we can to teach our next generation what it means to be healthy. We want to teach everyone how to be well. Mental health and well-being belong in the classroom!