Communities That Care

Program description

Communities That Care aims to reduce student mental health issues by training school staff to partner with local stakeholders.

This process assists school teams to reduce student mental health problems by improving the local primary to secondary school transition in partnership with other schools, and community, family and mental health services.

The program includes:

• online training and consulting support
• a community forum
• a youth survey.

Communities That Care provides schools with 5 phases of training to help improve the selection of programs from the Schools Mental Health Menu and reduce pathways to student mental health problems in the local community:

• Phase 1: School staff identify and recruit relevant community stakeholders and key decision makers to a ‘community coalition’.
• Phase 2: School staff establish a school and community coalition (including youth advisors) to guide decision making and planning for the Communities That Care effort in the community. A local agency, such as a school or Municipal Council, provides the main support.
• Phase 3: 2 to 4 schools work with community partners to develop a Community Profile Report based on data gathered using the Communities That Care Youth Survey and other local, state and national data sources. An assessment of existing community resources and strengths is made. The coalition sets action priorities based on the identified local needs.
• Phase 4: The school and community partners work together to develop a comprehensive plan to select programs from the Menu to guide prevention and health promotion activities in the community. This plan focuses on evidence-based strategies that align with local priorities for action.
• Phase 5: The coalition monitors and evaluates program implementation to ensure that intended outcomes are achieved, and any problems can be identified and rectified. The Communities That Care Youth Survey is repeated to evaluate the achievements, based on youth reports.

Intended outcomes

• Increased staff knowledge of community mental health promotion models and Communities That Care
• Reduction in student mental health and behavioural health problems and their modifiable risk and protective factors

Program details

Implementation considerations

• Target population: Primary and secondary school staff and upper primary and secondary school students.
• Program adaptability: The program is suitable for diverse cohorts including:
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
  • culturally and linguistically diverse students.
• Staffing: School staff will require online access and professional development release to complete training.
• Training requirements: Training is comprised of a 2-hour online introductory training, with an additional 2-hour online training session and 4 hours consulting support available on request at other phases of the program.
• Factors to consider: Phase 1.1's 2-hour online introductory training will be run quarterly or when groups of 5 to 25 people are booked in. Phase 1.2 requires a group of around 5 school staff (minimum 2 and [negotiable] maximum 8) to participate. From Phase 3 onwards school teams are required to form coalitions with 2 to 4 other schools and organisations in their municipality to reduce the student mental health risk factors that affect their community.
• Australian context: Communities That Care was developed in the United States of America and has been applied and evaluated in Australia.

Cost

Minimum cost

$5,000+

Detailed cost

Not all phases of the program need to be purchased, as each phase will help staff decide if they are interested in purchasing the next phase. The price for Phase 1.1 is per staff member, for Phases 1.2 to 2.2 per school team of around 5 staff and from Phases 3.1 to 5.3 per clusters of 2 to 4 schools, each with school teams of around 5 staff.

Charges vary for each phase of the program (excluding GST):

• Phase 1.1: $220
• Phase 1.2: $2,200
• Phase 2.1: $3,300
• Phase 2.2: $2,200
• Phase 3.1: $2,200
• Phase 3.2: $16,500
• Phase 3.3: $2,200
• Phase 4.1: $2,200
• Phase 4.2: $2,200
• Phase 5.1: $2,200
• Phase 5.2: $16,500
• Phase 5.3: $2,200.