Abstract
The public school setting is
increasingly becoming an entry point of contact for an array of healthcare
services because it is most likely the best positioned institution to
improve a community's overall healthcare. By linking behavioral healthcare
services with primary healthcare services in the school setting, the
psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist is well suited to
provide comprehensive behavioral health services.
Introduction
The public school setting is
increasingly becoming an entry point of contact for an array of healthcare
services, including behavioral health services. The psychiatric-mental
health clinical nurse specialist (CNS) who combines an understanding of
human growth and development, a holistic view of the individual, and
knowledge of primary healthcare is well suited to offer comprehensive
mental health services within the school setting. Early identification and
timely intervention, which are achieved easily within the school's
'captive audience,' are key components of behavioral illness prevention
and treatment.[1] When the services take place within the
school system, accessibility and efficiency of the interventions increase,
fragmentation decreases, and there is no unnecessary stigma that often
surrounds referrals for mental health treatment.
However, the psychiatric-mental
health CNS in the school setting may need a venue other than behavioral
health for offering these health services. Too often, students do not use
behavioral health services because of the stigma attached to such
services. Thus, the psychiatric-mental health CNS in the school setting
may best meet behavioral health clinical objectives by linking those
services to primary healthcare services. This article discusses the unique
role of the psychiatric-mental health CNS in providing behavioral services
in the public school system by combining such services with those of
primary care providers. The innovative partnership between the
psychiatric-mental health CNS and the primary care nurse practitioner is
discussed as it was used in a school-based clinic in a high school in a
southwestern state in the United States.
