The SMHC faculty, students, and staff are available for consultation with schools in relation to a range of topics.

Please use the form at the bottom of this page to submit a request for consultation. Alternatively, feel free to contact the co-directors directly via email.

The mission of the School Mental Health Collaborative (SMHC) is to facilitate and promote access to high-quality, evidence-based, school mental and behavioral health assessments and interventions. 

The SMHC focuses on:

 (1) Reviewing and disseminating evidence-based school mental health interventions and assessment.

(2) Developing consumable evidence briefs and blueprints that will serve as effective catalysts to guide advocacy and inform school mental health policy and practice, and 

(3) Creating school-university research partnerships that include expert technical assistance to facilitate essential implementation processes and provide program evaluation expertise. 

The following list of services is provided within a Multi-Tiered System of Support across four phases of technical assistance. Time estimates (inclusive of preparation) are provided along with suggested Tier of support. On average, most schools will engage in an average of 10 hours of weekly support across the academic year for an approximate yearly total of 300 hours.

Technical Assistance Phases 

Readiness:

School team is determining capacity to begin implementing social-emotional, behavioral, and mental health supports across Tiers I and II. Readiness typically involves building internal capacity to complete assessments in Tiers I and II along with the requisite intervention supports. Training in specific interventions at this phase will involve primarily didactic introductions to the concepts and components of the intervention, to promote basic knowledge of the intervention. Subsequent training will involve a much closer look at the intervention through active learning methods to permit practice of the content in a controlled setting, such as through role plays with feedback, to promote intermediate and procedural knowledge and competency of the intervention and culminate with readiness to apply it with supports.

Implementation:

School team has foundational supports in place and is ready to begin data collection, data review, intervention selection, and progress monitoring. Implementation phase involves more in-depth training, practice, and review of readiness interventions/assessments, as well as problem solving common barriers to success (e.g., intervention fidelity). Training in specific interventions at this phase will involve supervision of the intervention as delivered in the actual settings, through coaching methods to ensure fidelity to intended procedures, to promote expert knowledge and proficiency of the intervention and culminate with ability to deliver it independently. 

Expansion:

Once the team has implemented the necessary components to begin integrated Tiers I/II, expansion includes weekly coaching to improve delivery of classroom interventions, meeting with problem solving teams to review progress towards school initiatives/goals, and expanding into areas beyond initial implementation (e.g., moving from PBIS or behavioral foundation into integrated SEL or mental health supports). 

Program Improvement:

Schools with fully implemented and expanded Tiers I/II now build a culture of continuous improvement through data reviews, ongoing coaching, and onboarding of new staff. A specific focus includes training on data literacy and using data across a variety of sources to monitor the overall effectiveness of the MTSS as well as specific components across Tiers I and II.


 

Request for Consultation Form

UW-Madison Student walking

Co-Directors

Katie Eklund, Ph.D.
katie.eklund@wisc.edu 

Stephen Kilgus, Ph.D.
skilgus@wisc.edu

Nathaniel von der Embse, Ph.D., NCSP
natev@usf.edu

Andy Garbacz, Ph.D.
sgarbacz@wisc.edu

Shannon Suldo, Ph.D.
suldo@usf.edu

Evan Dart, Ph.D., BCBA-D
ehd@usf.edu