School Mental Health (SMH) ASSIST Priorities

Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education, School Mental Health (SMH) ASSIST is a provincial implementation support team designed to provide leadership, resources, and direct implementation support to district school boards in their efforts to promote student mental health and well-being by maintaining a clear scope, and recommended sequence for implementation of school mental health practices.

SMH ASSIST’s core areas of focus are:

• Leadership and organizational conditions to support effective school mental health;
• Capacity-building for educators and system leaders; and
• Selection and implementation of evidence- based mental health promotion and prevention programming.

Using the foundational work of the first three years, the SMH ASSIST Strategy for 2014-2017 aims to deepen the focus on implementation going forward, particularly in relation to introducing sustainable evidence-based mental health promotion and prevention programming, and with enhanced attention to the needs of specific populations. In addition, as the Ontario context evolves in relation to the Strategy and Achieving Excellence, SMH ASSIST will maintain an explicit focus on contributing to the emerging system of care for children and youth.