Urban Elementary School Personnel's Perceptions of Student Health and Student Health Needs

Mansour, Mona E.; Kotagal, Uma P.; DeWitt, Thomas G.; Rose, Barbara; Sherman, Susan N.

doi:10.1367/1539-4409(2002)002<0127:UESPSP>2.0.CO;2

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Volume 2, Issue 2 , Pages 127-131, March 2002

Urban Elementary School Personnel's Perceptions of Student Health and Student Health Needs

Mona E. Mansour, MD, MS
- Address correspondence to Mona E. Mansour, MD, MS, Division of General and Community Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039
Uma P. Kotagal, MBBS, MSc
- From the Departments of General and Community Pediatrics (Drs Mansour and DeWitt) Clinical Effectiveness (Ms Kotagal and Ms Rose), and SNS Research (Dr Sherman), Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Thomas G. DeWitt, MD
- From the Departments of General and Community Pediatrics (Drs Mansour and DeWitt) Clinical Effectiveness (Ms Kotagal and Ms Rose), and SNS Research (Dr Sherman), Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Barbara Rose, MPH
- From the Departments of General and Community Pediatrics (Drs Mansour and DeWitt) Clinical Effectiveness (Ms Kotagal and Ms Rose), and SNS Research (Dr Sherman), Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Susan N. Sherman, DPA
- From the Departments of General and Community Pediatrics (Drs Mansour and DeWitt) Clinical Effectiveness (Ms Kotagal and Ms Rose), and SNS Research (Dr Sherman), Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

Received 6 July 2001; accepted 15 November 2001.

Objective.—To determine the perceptions of school personnel with regard to urban students' health and health needs as part of a planning process for development and implementation of school-linked health services.

Methods.—A self-administered, close-ended questionnaire was given to 294 schoolteachers and school staff to assess school personnel perceptions of 1) health needs of students, 2) priority of need for health services or programs delivered on-site or off-site, and 3) selected factors suspected to affect implementation of new school health services.

Results.—A total of 72% of teachers and 77% of staff completed the survey. The most highly ranked need by school personnel was mental health, followed by violence and anger management and physical abuse and domestic violence. The most commonly requested services on-site and off-site were for physical abuse or domestic violence, mental health, and drug or other substance abuse. Only 40% of teachers and staff rated current health services as excellent or good. A total of 72% of teachers and staff had some level of discomfort with their current responsibilities regarding the health of students. Parental involvement was reported to be quite low, with only 9% of teachers and staff rating it as excellent or good.

Conclusions.—The greatest health care need identified by these elementary school personnel was not for management of chronic or acute physical health conditions, but for mental health services and programs to meet the emotional and psychosocial needs of students. When implementing school-linked or school-based mental health services, focus needs to be placed on 3 areas: 1) education of school health and educational personnel regarding common mental health issues, 2) development of systems that improve knowledge of and connection with mental health resources inside and outside the school, and 3) development of systems that improve communication within the school and between the school and parents regarding health services.

KEY WORDS: expanded mental health services , mental health , school health