Report: A Comprehensive Student Support Program in Mental Health // برنامج دعم طلابي شامل للصحة النفسية

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/bethunivj.34.2017.0143
• Pages: 143-155
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Date: 01 January 2017
• Author: Sherein Abdeen,Samah Jabr,Michael Morse,Katherine Lyman,Elizabeth Berger

143

BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY JOURNAL 34 (2017)

Report

A Comprehensive Student Support Program in Mental Health

ﺔﻴﺴﻔﻨﻟاﺔﺤﺼﻠﻟﻞﻣﺎﺷﻲﺑﻼﻃﻢﻋدﺞﻣﺎﻧﺮﺑ

Sherein Abdeen, Samah Jabr, Michael Morse, Katherine Lyman

and Elizabeth Berger

Abstract

In response to an identified need to improve the emotional resilience of children in

Palestine, the Palestinian Medical Education Initiative (PMED) developed a comprehensive

program to support student mental health that was delivered at a private school in

East Jerusalem in 2015-2016. This report describes the structure and function of the

comprehensive program, in which training was provided for all school staff and for parents

in a series of meetings and workshops, in addition to the establishment of a permanent

school-based Taskforce, led by the trainer, consisting of two teachers, the principal, and

the guidance counselor. The report also outlines the processes of outcomes measurement

and evaluation of this program.

The aim of the Taskforce was to develop school-wide programming supporting student

resilience and to make specific plans to address individual students who had been identified

with behavioral or learning problems. The success of this pilot program demonstrates the

effectiveness of the training/Taskforce model and suggests that future policy planning and

research in Palestine consider adopting similar comprehensive student support programs.

Key Words: Palestine, students, schools, mental health, school-based, teachers, principals, guidance

counselors, resilience, training, psychotherapy

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