The mission of the Mental Health-Education Integration Consortium (MHEDIC) is to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and professional workforce preparation for the many disciplines involved in supporting student learning and mental health, including educators, mental health and health staff, families and youth, advocates and others.
Goals of MHEDIC are to:
Through pre-service, graduate, and in-service training and ongoing support, equip and empower educators in their roles as promoters of student mental health and mental health staff to work effectively in schools.
Promote interdisciplinary collaboration and mutual support among families and youth, and education and mental health/health professionals who work in schools.
Build research and advance policy related to mental health and education systems working closely together to improve programs and services and achieve valued outcomes for students and schools.
MHEDIC membership includes an interdisciplinary group of leaders from various disciplines (e.g., social work; education and education leadership; clinical, counseling, school and educational psychology; psychiatry; nursing; public health) and institutions (e.g., university, state and local governments, school systems, mental health systems). Currently, members are asked to invite others who embrace the consortium’s values. Individual members will orient new members to the purpose, mission, goals, and structure of the MHEDIC.Click here to view a list of current MHEDIC members.
Priorities
MHEDIC is focused on key efforts to promote workforce development for interdisciplinary school mental health practice. At this time, MHEDIC is organized around four central priority areas, including training, practice, research and policy. Subgroups within MHEDIC strategically focus on these areas, honing in on critical issues related to interdisciplinary collaboration and workforce preparation within each domain area.
The establishment of interdisciplinary competencies for school mental health professionals. These competencies are intended to promote school mental health and inform professional preparation for those working in school mental health.
The continued refinement of the MHEDIC-endorsed educator competencies for school mental health. More specifically, several initiatives are underway to develop training and professional development experiences based on the competencies.
A formulized research agenda to move the school mental health field forward. This agenda is anchored in the school mental health workforce agenda and focused on quality implementation of school mental health practices and outcome measures indicating practice effectiveness, efficiency, and fidelity.
A targeted agenda to engage graduate students across disciplines working with and in schools in MHEDIC. Of particular interest is the emergent priority related to interprofessional practice and pre-service preparation in institutions of higher education.
An informed approach to developing the consortium through conscious efforts to encourage interdisciplinary membership, involve students to inform innovations in pre-service training, and support local and national initiatives focused on school mental health.
For more information related to MHEDIC, please contact the current Chair: Dawn Anderson-Butcher, Associate Professor, College of Social Work, Ohio State University at anderson-butcher.1@osu.edu or 614-292-8596. The MHEDIC website is http://www.mhedic.org/
In 2006, several members of MHEDIC provided advisory consultation to the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce for the Action Plan on Behavioral Health Workforce Development. For the full panel report provided on behalf of MHEDIC, click here.
