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July 30, 2022 | Volume 3, Number 3

Take HEART: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!

Create a school-based prevention to early intervention treatment continuum that supports holistic services through collaborations.

Featured Resource

Best Practices for Collaboration on School-Based Mental Health

News You Can Use

American Academy of Pediatricians Policy Statement


LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health: Resources for School Mental Health Providers and School Personnel


Healing School Communities: Shifting the Dominant Paradigm to Center Student Wellness

Featured C-TLC Fellow:

Tanya Bulls, LCSW

Dean of Students, Bristol, CT

Learn more

Events, Resources, and Announcements

What's happening this month in the MHTTC Network

School Mental Health Needs Assessment

We are developing a needs assessment to capture the views and opinions of educators and behavioral health professionals on a wide variety of education issues. Your responses will inform our work and guide the development of resources we offer SY2022-2023.


We will release our online survey tool directly to our more than 8,000 subscribers. All respondents will be entered into our gift drawing.


Ten (10) survey respondents will be randomly selected to receive a $25.00 Visa gift card.

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Editor's Corner

Ingrid Padgett

Communications & Program Strategist 

New England MHTTC

We are living at a time of unprecedented change. And while change can be unsettling, take heart—similar challenges have been faced and overcome! One thing is certain, we need community care to thrive. We must find ways to interact with one another that intentionally protect and promote our mental health and well-being. We should all be working to support healing, resilience, and recovery.

In this issue, we focus on the importance of collaborations to create a prevention to early intervention continuum that offers holistic school-based mental health supports. We recognize that schools are

often the hubs for communities and believe that all schools can support the mental health and well-being of everyone in the school community.


Our School Mental Health Initiative convened the Healthcare workers and Educators Addressing and Reducing Trauma (HEART) Collective to enhance collaborations between community health centers and schools to support positive mental health and well-being for youth in school-based settings.


Through our recent "Take HEART!" campaign, we promoted the importance of advocacy to ensure the sustainability of school-based wraparound mental health services. Use and share our toolkit and continue to advocate for public policies and practices that foster respect, promote equity, and improve the resilience of students and staff so that they can lead more productive and healthier lives.

Featured Resource: Best Practices for Collaboration on School-Based Mental Health: Using the Compassionate School Mental Health Model

By Martha Staeheli, Director, School Mental Health Initiative,

New England MHTTC


The New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s Childhood-Trauma Learning Collaborative expanded its Compassionate School Mental Health model to better emphasize the value of partnering with agencies, organizations, and healthcare centers. We suggest strategies that establish and strengthen connections with comprehensive primary care services available at community-based healthcare centers that can provide wraparound services and more intensive levels of care for youth and educators.

Download and Review.

Looking for ways to develop collaborations around comprehensive school mental health supports? Visit our HEART Collective website for resources on the impact of childhood-trauma and ways to build the critical collaborations needed to create compassionate school communities.

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News You Can Use

Pediatricians call for an end to language that stigmatizes or blames patients for addiction, which is a medical disorder.


new policy statement developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides recommendations for pediatricians, media, policymakers, and government agencies with medically accurate, person-first, and non-stigmatizing terminology around substance use.


Learn more and check out the recommendations for language to avoid, and why.

LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health: Resources for School Mental Health Providers and School Personnel

By Ingrid Padgett, Communications and Program Strategist, New England MHTTC


The broader Technology Transfer Center Network includes 10 Regional Centers, a National American Indian and Alaska Native Center, a National Hispanic and Latino Center, and a Network Coordinating Office. Our collaborative network supports resource development and dissemination, training and technical assistance, and workforce development for the mental health field. 


As a part of Pride Month recognition activities in June, our partners at the Southeast MHTTC School Mental Health Initiative collaborated with the Center of Excellence on LGBTQ+ Behavioral Health Equity to support school mental health providers as they increase their skills as affirming providers to better support LGBTQ+ students.  


Learn more.

Shifting the Dominant Paradigm to Center Student Wellness

By Martha Staeheli, Director, School Mental Health Initiative, New England MHTTC


The MHTTC Network's Healing School Communities Group was formed with the goal to help students, families, educators, and school mental health professionals navigate the ongoing impact of racial violence in all forms on student mental health.


In early 2022, the group led a Community of Practice, Healing School Communities: Shifting the Dominant Paradigm to Center Student Wellness, to explore the roles and responsibilities of school staff and systems in supporting a school’s healing ecosystem within the context of racial violence. Case studies from members of the school mental health workforce were utilized to create solutions to dilemmas around racial violence.


Download the report.

Featured Fellow: Tanya Bulls, LCSW Bridging the Gap: Empowering School Communities Through Trauma-informed Practices 

By Ingrid Padgett, Communications and Program Strategist, New England MHTTC

Tanya Bulls, LCSW, is a resourceful educator who brings over 20 years of experience in social work to her role as Dean of Students at South Side School and Stafford Elementary School in Bristol, CT. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanya found herself in a new district supporting two schools. She knew her work would require patience, diligence, and intentional efforts to develop relationships with students, families, and staff at each school. Bridging the gap would require a policy review, enhanced engagement activities, and consideration of how best to position herself to empower the school communities she serves through trauma-informed practices.

Read more.

Events, Resources, and Announcements

Register now for events across the

New England Technology Transfer Center Network!

New C-TLC Resources

The C-TLC develops training materials to enhance school culture and prepare professionals in education and mental health to improve and support the mental health and resiliency of school-aged youth. Access our latest releases.

Video: Collaborations to Build and Maintain Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems
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With this release, we recognize the immense contributions of the New England MHTTC's Education Coordinator Dana Asby!

As a member of the team since 2018, Dana was integral to the foundational efforts that launched our School Mental Health Initiative. As she moves into a position with the National Federation of Families (NFF), helping them with the National Family Support Technical Assistance Center, we look forward to connecting with her across the school mental health network around ways to continue and extend opportunities to support youth mental health as a vital aspect of holistic healing and family engagement efforts.

The C-TLC is funded by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is the School Mental Health Initiative of the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center.

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