Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

The President's New Freedom Commission report on Mental Health (2003) recommends delivering evidence based mental health interventions for children and youth in the schools. Despite the availability of EBP for work with children, adolescents and their families, many of these EBP's are not widely used in social work practice. The gap between research and practice continues to be a challenge for the social workers involved in delivering interventions in public child serving systems. This evaluation study examines the implementation of cognitive-behavioral group interventions for middle and high school youth experiencing depressive symptoms at three school-based health and wellness (SBHC) clinics. The three SBHC settings serve a relatively high concentrations of students from families who receive Medicaid or are uninsured - approximately 50%. A majority of the youth are white and about one third of the youth are black. The 3 social workers in the SBHC were trained in CBT , supervised on a weekly basis and the groups were monitored for fidelity to the CBT group model. The manualized CBT depression group intervention was delivered during the school day for one hour over 9 weeks. Youth with depressive symptoms in the school setting were referred by school and health care center staff. Depressive symptoms, school engagement and peer relationships were assessed at the start, end and 6 weeks post the group intervention using standardized measures. Data was collected from parents, teachers and students. A total of 60 youth participated in the CBT groups. A majority of the youth experienced decreases in depressive symptoms, increased school engagement, and improved problem solving skills by the end of the CBT group intervention. No differences in outcomes were noted based on gender or race. Qualitative feedback from students indicated that they found the group sessions to be helpful to them and would recommend the group to other students. These initial findings support the use of CBT group interventions by social workers in SBHC settings. Integrating evidence based brief group interventions in school settings can result in significant positive change for youth.