Teacher Help for Children and Youth With Mental Health Disorders

Summary

Currently, Canadian school systems are struggling to meet the needs of children with mental health disorders. It is particularly challenging to meet the needs of students with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) within the regular classroom setting. Past research indicates that supportive and knowledgeable teachers who implement evidence-based interventions in the classroom are effective in increasing the success of students with mental health disorders, including students with NDDs. Factors such as understanding the disorder, use of evidenced-based teaching approaches, and access to professional developmental opportunities can improve teacher's knowledge and classroom practice. The Teacher Help research team along with industry partner, Velsoft, and key knowledge user, Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, will address this need by developing, evaluating, and commercializing a sustainable eHealth resource for teachers. Teacher Help is an eHealth professional development program that assists teachers who work in the regular classroom setting in providing evidence-based interventions to students in grades 1 to 12 with mental health disorders. The program was developed based on programs previously tested by the investigators as well as on the extant literature on this topic. Teacher Help provides access to information through 6 sessions using text, video, and activities. Currently three modules (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder \[ADHD\], Autism Spectrum Disorder \[ASD\], and Learning Disabilities \[LD\]) are at different stages in the innovation pipeline.Our goal is to conduct a pre-post intervention study in which participants (collaborating school psychologists, teachers, students, and caregivers) access the Teacher Help program. The effects of the Teacher Help intervention will be assessed once participants have completed the intervention. Assessments will include students' general psychopathology symptoms, impairment, and quality of life as reported by teachers, parents/caregivers, and students (when developmentally appropriate). Additionally, we will explore changes in treatment utilization, participants' satisfaction with the program, as well as changes in teachers' beliefs toward students with NDDs and use of evidence-based strategies. To the Teacher Help team's knowledge, Teacher Help is the first and only research-validated eHealth program directly targeting teachers to help them intervene with children and youth who have mental health disorders, thus allowing Canada to take a lead in eHealth as applied to a school context.

Conditions

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Learning Disabilities

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Teacher Help Intervention

The intervention will be provided to collaborating psychologists and their teachers to access. Teachers will work through the intervention, and psychologists will act as a support for teachers if needed. All participants can access and/or provide usual services. Teachers will work with one student in their classroom with ADHD, ASD, or LD throughout the intervention phase. Each session in the program will provide factual information to teachers, strategies for implementation of best practices to address the specific mental health disorder in the classroom setting (i.e., ADHD, ASD, or LD), and access to additional help and advice.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• IWK Health Centre

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Penny V Corkum, PhD · Dalhousie University

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-01-01

Primary Completion

2019-06-28

Completion

2019-09-01

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations