School mental health assist

School Mental Health ASSIST (SMH ASSIST) is a provincial implementation support team designed to help Ontario school boards promote student mental health and well-being. SMH ASSIST operates within the Open Minds, Healthy Minds: Ontario’s Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, and works with the Ministry of Education to provide school mental health leadership, resources and coaching support.

SMH ASSIST employs an implementation science framework to help Ontario’s 72 school boards approach student wellbeing in a way that is systematic, intentional and evidence-based. SMH ASSIST offers its services directly to school boards via their Mental Health Leadership Team, most often through the Superintendent.

For more detailed information about the theoretical background supporting the SMH ASSIST approach, see Intentional, explicit, systematic: Implementation and scale-up of effective practices for supporting student mental well-being in Ontario schools.

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