Dr Belinda Poole
Clinical Psychologist & Research Fellow, University of SydneyPresenting at the Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne MHIS Conferences
Presentation: Developing a Framework and decision aid for school-based interventions
Schools have a critical role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of students, and there are a range of interventions and resources available for schools to implement. Despite this, little is known about how schools make decisions about what school-based interventions to implement for their students. A recent review of school-based interventions in NSW, Australia identified several mental health related programs used by schools, which had a mixed level of evidence for their effectiveness (Laurens et al., 2022). Implementing ineffective treatment interventions is time consuming and costly to schools and runs the possible risk of iatrogenic harm from programs that are not suitable or evidence-based (Foulkes et al., 2023). This presentation will provide the results of a scoping review into the decision-making processes regarding which school-based interventions and will discuss the next stage of research into the development of a framework and decision aid for schools.
Dr Belinda Poole
Dr Belinda Poole is a clinical psychologist and research fellow at The University of Sydney. Belinda has previously worked as a school psychologist in NSW public schools and has a broad interest in youth mental health. Belinda is part of the Growing Minds Australia – School Based Interventions research committee, which includes Professors Caroline Hunt, Ron Rapee, Andrea Reupert, Allison Waters, Eva Kimonis, and Frank Oberklaid.