Abstract
The Early Identification System (EIS) is a school-based, public health approach to prevention, early identification, and intervention of mental health risk factors in youth (K-12). It includes a suite of coordinated online tools and interventions for school personnel to (a) conduct feasible mental health risk screening of all K-12 students; (b) access user-friendly online data dashboards to identify school- grade-, and student-level risk factors; (c) target identified risk factors using a menu of evidence-based interventions shown to lessen those concerns. Over 200 schools across the U.S. currently implement the EIS. For ten years, a coalition of six districts in mid-Missouri has used the EIS tools to screen every K-12 student (~25,000) in 54 schools multiple times per year for social, behavioral, and emotional risk and provided interventions based on these data. In the Fall of 2023, a new set of comparable schools administered the EIS to their students for the first time. We were able to compare these students whose schools were naïve to the entire EIS system to students in schools that had been implementing the EIS for years. Analyses revealed significant benefits for students in schools implementing the EIS model; these students had half the risk of serious mental health concerns as comparable students in schools not implementing the model. We discuss the implications for the widespread use and dissemination of the EIS to improve youth mental health outcomes.
Presenters
Keith HermanCurators' Distinguished Professor, Missouri Prevention Science Institute, University of Missouri, Missouri, United States Wendy Reinke
Professor, University of Missouri, Missouri, United States Aaron Thompson
Professor & Chair, Social Work, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States Catherine Bradshaw
University of Virginia Wolfgang Wiedermann
University of Missouri Francis Huang
Professor, Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, Missouri, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Universal Screening; Prevention; Mental Health; Public Health
