South Carolina School Behavioral Health Collaborative

Purpose Statement

Advance interconnected practice, policy, and research to scale effective school behavioral health (SBH) programming in South Carolina (SC)

Informational Flyer

About Us

This collaborative began as a discussion between mental health clinical leaders at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), the Center for Telehealth at MUSC, and school behavioral health leaders at the University of South Carolina (USC). The discussion evolved with other partners joining, including the Boeing Center for Children’s Wellness and the SC Departments of Health and Human Services, Mental Health, and Education. This collaborative hopes to address the disparities in mental health service access and delivery for students and families by utilizing technological advancements of the national technology center at MUSC.

Our Mission

Create a collaborative partnership across SC to enhance mental health services, by advancing access to mental health interventions through technology and provide evidence-based and equitable mental health services to all students through effective SBH programming.

Goals of the Collaborative

Build a partnership of key state leaders/organizations to scale-up effective SBH across SC and increase equitable access to mental health services for all school children. Through the partnership, expand innovative approaches to better address student/family mental health needs emphasizing strategies such as telemental health integration into schools’ well done and established MTSS frameworks. Convene practice & policy leaders across relevant disciplines (youth and families) to guide the growth of effective SBH in the state, inclusive of technology & other innovations. Develop user friendly, research-based documents on best practices in SBH, making them available to broad and diverse audiences in South Carolina.

SC School Behavioral Health Summit

Many thanks to all who attended the first SC School Behavioral Health Summit in March. This one-day summit involved policy leaders, researchers, practitioners, educators, family members, and other advocates in identifying the strengths, challenges, and areas of innovation for the development of a more coherent and effective statewide approach to school behavioral health (SBH).

Based on suggestions from the Summit workgroups, this year’s areas of focus for the SC School Behavioral Health Collaborative will be:

• Foster a visible and cohesive partnership among professional associations—including social workers, psychologists, counselors, and nurses—alongside DHHS and DOE.
• Clear privacy safeguards, and strong collaboration among schools, families and agencies are needed to ensure all students have access to safe, effective, and equitable (tele)mental health services. Streamlined consent processes, sustainable reimbursement pathways, and investment in technology, space, and workforce capacity are needed.
• Request statewide guidance regarding coaching and technical assistance of effective school behavioral health best practices.

Please see the newsletter below for more information and email us at boeingcenter@musc.edu if you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive quarterly newsletters and more information on upcoming summits!

View this newsletter for more information.