The Scanlan Center for School Mental Health announced the 2024 Iowa School Mental Health Awardees at the 2024 Iowa BEST Summit in Coralville, Iowa.

Four University of Iowa staff, faculty and students were announced as the 2024 Mental Health Champion Award recipients during the ceremony held Tuesday, April 30.  The second-annual Mental Health Champion Award celebrates outstanding members of the University of Iowa community who help create and bolster a positive mental health and well-being culture. Their dedication to care inspires others to prioritize mental health in their own lives.

The Scanlan Center for School Mental Health was established in June 2021 to meet a critical need for mental health services in Iowa’s PreK-12 schools, and worked to help address the acute shortage by providing training opportunities for the next generation of SMHPs through the Scanlan Center’s Workforce Expansion Graduate Student (WEGs) Program. As the program comes to a close, we reflect on its success.

Recent research from the University of Iowa found overwhelmingly that staff and faculty from Iowa community colleges feel responsible for supporting their students’ mental health and wellness through modeling behaviors and referring them to campus resources. However, even fewer employees were confident in their ability to do so.

Check out the 2022-2023 Scanlan Center for School Mental Health Annual Report

The Scanlan Center for School Mental Health and three other universities have been awarded a four-year, $10.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant will launch the Mental Health Evaluation, Training, Research, and Innovation Center for Schools (METRICS), a national center aimed at scaling up the school-based mental health workforce of PK-12, social workers, school psychologists, school counselors, and other practitioners.

A new program led by child health experts in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine aims to increase access to pediatric mental health services in Iowa—especially in the state’s medically underserved and rural communities. This program will be in collaboration with colleagues in the UI College of Education and primary care and mental health providers around the state.

Chuck Xander, the University of Iowa's new embedded counselor, will support veteran's and military-connected students. His position became a reality in 2022 when the Scanlan family donated $15 million to the UI College of Education to expand school mental health services and Veterans.

Counselor Education and Supervision doctoral student Tevin Middleton was recently awarded funds to research how bolstering school mental health can improve minority student matriculation in the K-20 educational continuum. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation granted Middleton $124,000 through its Health Policy Research Scholars program.

Gerta Bardhoshi, director of research and training for the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health and professor of counselor education in the University of Iowa College of Education, shares insights into helping children responsibly manage their social media this summer.