Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research September 2021 Newsletter
Back-to-School High School Edition
After a year of remote learning, students are finally getting back into the classroom. While it's exciting to be back to in-person learning it's not without challenges and stresses especially for those who are students with mental health conditions.

Our September issue offers
back-to-school information and resources for high school students and educators to help them be successful this year.
In This Issue:
  • What is a 504 Plan & How Can It Help My Teen
  • Student-led Individual Education Plans (IEPs) tipsheets
  • School Mental Health Resources (a listing)
  • Our blog on classroom friendly coping skills
  • School That Makes Cent$: Taking CTE Courses
  • New publication on Barriers and Facilitators of Education and Employment of Young Adults
  • Guides for Transition Planning in IEPs that lead to post-secondary success
  • Ethics In Education Podcast Featuring Dr. Marsha Ellison
  • Suicide Prevention Month: Important Prevention Resources
  • Industry Events & Research
SCHOOL SUPPORT RESOURCES
Has your high school student recently been diagnosed with a disability that requires school accommodations? Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, this federal Act prohibits the discrimination of students with disabilities and ensures these students receive the educational supports they
need to succeed in school. Our 504 Plan Tip Sheet provides a roadmap to creating a 504 Plan with their school.
Individualized Education Plans or IEPs are for students with a disability that require special education services. We've created two tip sheets on how high school students can have active roles in their IEP's and IEP meetings.
EMPOWERING YOUTH IN TRANSITION
Classroom Friendly Coping Skills
Healthy coping skills can be an amazing tool in achieving academic success. Finding healthy coping strategies that work for you is an ongoing and nonlinear process, which involves trial and error. Read some of the strategies our blogger has utilized
to their recovery and success as a student.

School that Makes
Sense Cent$:
Taking CTE Courses
Career and Technical Education (or CTE) classes are a great way to learn skills for your future career. If you take a concentration of CTE courses, you can graduate with special certifications that make you eligible to work in certain jobs, for example as a Certified Nursing Assistant or Auto Repair Technician.

These certifications can help you get a head start on your college or career.
IMPROVING PRACTICE
New Journal Article!
Young adults with serious mental health conditions (SMHC) navigate erratic patterns of school, training, and work with frequent disruptions most often caused by stress-induced anxiety or panic, increased symptomatology, and interpersonal conflicts.

Kathryn Sabella, researcher on the Collecting Histories of Education and Employment During Recovery (CHEER) study, has published a new article in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal.

TEST Guides
What is TEST?
The Translating Evidence to Support Transitions (TEST) project has created a series of practice guides to increase the use and adoption of 3 research-informed practices for the transition planning of high school students with emotional behavioral disturbance (EBD) who receive special education services: student-led IEP meetings, community agency representation at IEP meetings, and concentrations of Career and Technical Education (CTE) coursework along career pathways.

Who are these guides for?
These guides are for a variety of educators such as: Special Education Teachers, Transition Planners, and Guidance or Mental Health Counselors who support and serve students with Emotional Behavioral Disturbance (EBD).
Dr. Ellison Speaks on Mental Health in Schools

Dr. Marsha Ellison, Transitions ACR Director of Knowledge Translation was featured in the Ethical School podcast. Listen as she discusses how to assist students with serious mental health challenges make the transitions from high school to adulthood.

Read more
ethicalschools.org
SEPTEMBER IS
SUICIDE PREVENTION AWARENESS MONTH
THE FACTS:

  • Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young adults.
  • 46% of people who die by suicide have a diagnosed mental health condition.
INDUSTRY EVENTS & RESEARCH
EVENTS
INDUSTRY RESEARCH
THINGS WE DO
is a manual-based intervention to support transition-aged youth and young adults with mental health conditions to develop their careers.
Translating Evidence to Support Transitions (TEST) is a Transitions ACR project completed in collaboration with NTACT and AIR.
Our Young Adult blog is
now available on audio!

Blogging on Adulting: In
Our Voice is a podcast on adulting and mental health by those with lived experience.


Funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program, the The Central MA Tobacco-Free Community Partnership (CMTFCP) mission is to reduce the health and economic burden of tobacco use by preventing young people from starting to use tobacco and nicotine products, helping current tobacco and nicotine users to quit, protecting children and adults from secondhand smoke, and identifying and eliminating tobacco-related disparities.
Learn more follow them on Facebook.com/CMTFCP
WHO WE ARE
The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research promotes the full participation in socially valued roles of transition-age youth and young adults (ages 14-30) with serious mental health conditions. The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research (Transitions ACR) is located within the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center (iSPARC) and houses The Learning & Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research & Training Center (The Learning & Working RRTC), among other projects.
The Learning & Working RRTC is a national effort that aims to improve the supports of this population to successfully complete their schooling and training and move into rewarding work lives. Funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).
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As a Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Center of Excellence located within the Department of Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School (formerly the University of Massachusetts Medical School), iSPARC aims to improve the mental and behavioral health of all citizens of Massachusetts and beyond.
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Some of the contents of this message were developed under a grant with funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, United States Department of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR grant number 90RTEM0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this message do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, and/or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
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