Mental health services in independent secondary boarding schools: The needfor a model

Independent secondary schools assume responsibility for the mental health n eeds of their boarding student populations generally with little guidance o ther than their own staff and anecdotal experiences. Given the prevalence o f mental health problems affecting adolescents and the developmental challe nges inherent to this population, inadequate services can pose serious adve rse consequences. In an attempt to clarify early guidelines of a model of m ental health for such schools, this study sought to qualitatively define th e types of services available to students in these settings, and the factor s which appear to influence adolescents access to mental health care. Throu gh the use of an open-ended, 22-item, interview questionnaire, the authors interviewed the "director" of mental health services at 19 identified schoo ls in a small sample of independent, secondary, college-preparatory boardin g schools in one northeastern state. Through the use of descriptive statist ics, the authors found that tremendous diversity exists within this sample and offer some early guidelines of mental health services for such schools in the areas of administration, structure of services, confidentiality/repe rcussion issues, and systems issues. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.