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Identifying the Mental Health Needs of Preschool Children
Kathleen R. Delaney, RN, DNSc, is an associate professor of nursing at Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago, IL. Her work includes teaching psychiatric nursing and consultation to schools and inpatient psychiatric units
Frances Belmonte-Mann, RN, MA, is the nurse facilitator in the Office of Language, Culture, and Early Childhood Education, Chicago Public Schools. Her work includes supervision of all nurses and aides who service the State Pre-K program, City of Chicago, Public Schools The city of Chicago offers publicly funded preschool education to 20,000 3- and 4-year-olds through its State Pre-Kindergarten program. The students attend some 300 schools, and their health needs are monitored by 11 nurses and 8 aides. In the last several years, the nursing coordinator recognized the need to improve the mental health assessment skills of the school nurses. To that end, a relationship was developed with a child psychiatric nurse who had expertise in assessing young children’s behaviors, particularly in the context of the classroom milieu. The collaboration of the school nurse and mental health nurse-consultant was structured as one-on-one sessions, each focusing on a particular child. A case is presented to illustrate the assessment method and accompanying suggestions for early intervention strategies. The case also points out how school nurses can structure assessments of at-risk children that lead to classroom-based interventions.
Key Words: assessment • child behavior • collaboration • early intervention • mental health
The Journal of School Nursing, Vol. 17, No. 4,
222-226 (2001) |
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