Increased mental health needs and new roles in school communities.

Topic: Mental health issues and partnership roles in school communities.

Purpose: To heighten the awareness of healthcare providers about the multiple mental health conditions students bring into school communities and the impact of these conditions on students' ability to learn; to encourage partnering between healthcare providers and educators to support students in achieving academic and developmental success.

Sources: Literature review and authors' experiences with assessment of and intervention with school-age children presenting with impaired mental health.

A program to educate school nurses about mental health interventions.

Concerned with the increasing incidence of mental health problems in children and adolescents and the impact of these problems on students' school success and predisposition to self- and other-directed violence, the Multnomah Education Service District Department of School Health Services determined to become proactive by providing preventive interventions for students experiencing actual or potential mental health problems. An educational program was designed to assist school nurses in the identification of potential mental health problems. In addition, information about appropriate interventions for students at risk for aggression, violence, and other mental health pathology was presented.

Nursing diagnosis--a language of nursing; a language for powerful communication.

Nurses are required by practice standards to be competent diagnosticians. We must be able to complete the diagnostic process and utilize the diagnostic language. Nursing diagnosis, a language developed by nurses, specifies the independent domain of our professional practice: the identification of clients' responses to actual or potential health problems, or life processes.