Enabling and Sustaining Mental Health in Schools

date: May 22, 2025

Everyone who has worked in a school intuitively understands the connection between student and staff wellbeing. When educators are well, it supports the wellbeing and academic success of their students. Research has repeatedly shown that when educators are well, they provide higher quality instruction, build better relationships with their students, and create more welcoming and inclusive school environments. Likewise, when students are well, it supports the wellbeing of educators. When students are doing well, they are more engaged in their learning and cause fewer disruptions. Not only does this reduce stress for educators, but it also feeds into one of their primary motivators: seeing their students succeed.

The connection between student and staff wellbeing emerged strongly as we examined the current pan-Canadian trends in K-12 workplace wellbeing. One of the most important strategies for supporting the wellbeing of K-12 employees is to ensure that they have the time, resources and knowledge to effectively support their students. However, with a sharp uptick in student needs following the pandemic – including an increase in student mental health concerns – educators are feeling stretched thin.

With this in mind, we embarked on an environmental scan to get a better sense of the approaches provinces/territories and school districts were implementing to support the mental health and wellbeing of their students. We recognized that many initiatives to support the mental health and wellbeing of students were championed and sustained by passionate adults. One of our goals for the scan was to identify systemic factors that enhanced uptake and sustainability of school mental health.

Systemic barriers and enablers for effective school mental health

Our literature review found two research papers, one Canadian (Neely, Montemurro, & Storey, 2020) and one international (March et al, 2022), that described enabling factors for successful implementation school health programs. The Canadian study described essential conditions for taking a comprehensive school health approach, including eight core conditions and four contextual conditions.

Core conditions

Students as change agents
School specific autonomy
Demonstrated administrative leadership
Higher level support
Dedicated champions to engage the school community
Community support
Quality and use of evidence
Professional development

Contextual conditions

Time
Readiness and understanding
Prior community connectivity
Funding and project support

A systematic review of international school-based mental health and wellbeing programs identified four sustainability factors at the school level (school leadership, staff engagement, intervention characteristics, and resources) and one at the wider system level (external support). These five sustainability factors were divided into multiple themes:

School leadership supports the sustainability of school mental health programs by prioritizing the intervention, aligning the program with school culture, integrating the program into school policies, and by allocating resources, including a designated program lead and time for training.
Staff engagement: Commitment from individual teachers and school employees, observing the benefits for the students, and student and parent engagement enhance sustainability, while staff turnover is a barrier to the sustainability of school mental health programs.
Intervention characteristics: Easy to use, practical, relevant and professionally prepared materials coupled with training for educators enhance the sustainability of school mental health programs.
Adequate resources, in particular, staff capacity to deliver the program and funding to support guest speakers and staff training facilitate the implementation and sustainability of mental health in schools programs.
External support, including school district and higher level support enhance program sustainability. Conflicting and shifting priorities create barriers to sustained implementation.

Although the two papers focused on school-based interventions, they also identified systemic factors that facilitated program implementation. Our environmental scan focused on how school districts and provincial/territorial ministries of education are supporting mental health in schools. The sections below highlight enabling factors along with specific examples. The examples provided represent just a small sample of the great work happening across Canada.

Evidence Based and Data-Driven Approaches

Both research papers described the importance of using evidence and data to support the design, implementation and monitoring of school mental health initiatives. As we learned more about mental health in schools initiatives and approaches across Canada, people consistently spoke of the value of using evidence-based frameworks to guide their work.

Jurisdictions across Canada are implementing a multi-tiered system of supports. This evidence-based model provides a continuum of support, connecting students with school based and community based support as required. Local data provides key information for tailoring mental health support and services to meet local needs.

Figure 1: Multi-tiered approach to supporting mental health (adapted from Right Time, Right Care, cmho.org)

Strong Leadership Support

In both research reports and across all the examples we discovered, strong leadership support was essential for the success of school mental health initiatives. Leaders at all levels play a critical role in establishing mental health as a priority and for allocating the necessary resources for successful implementation.

Provincial strategies, such as British Columbia’s Mental Health in Schools Strategy, and policy mandate’s such a Ontario’s PPM 169 – School Mental Health establish clear priorities for school districts, ensuring that mental health is prioritized alongside other goals.

At the school district level, strong senior leadership helps align resources to facilitate implementation of school mental health. In many cases, school mental health gets prioritized by a passionate leader, however some provinces have taken steps to enhance build senior level leadership commitment. For example, as part of PPM 169, all school boards in Ontario have a Superintendent with responsibility for Mental Health. Superintendent’s associations also play a key role in generating awareness and knowledge around the importance of school mental health.

School level leadership is equally important, with principals playing a key role in shaping school culture, setting priorities, and allocating resources within the school. One superintendent we spoke with described the difference between schools where the principals had embraced a focus on school culture and schools where they had not.

Establishing mental health as a clear priority and focus

Effective implementation of mental health in schools is supported with a clear priority and focus on the work. Many provincial and territorial ministries of education have, or are in the process of developing, a mental health in schools framework or strategy. Despite the stated importance of school mental health, in practice, it must be balanced among the many priorities of our education systems. Educators and system leaders we spoke to described how school mental health can feel like just one more thing to do.

The actions to support mental health in schools, especially at the tier 1 or universal level, have significant overlap with the actions to support many of the other goals we have for our students and school systems. For example, actions to support mental health also improve social-emotional learning and vice versa. Similar connections exist among supporting positive student behaviour, enhancing equity and inclusion, and creating safe and caring school environments. Instead of considering each of these goals individually, considering how actions can support multiple goals can help overcome feeling of “initiative-itis”. Taking this a step further, some school districts are bringing together multiple goals in a common action plan to streamline communication and accelerate action.

Adequate and relevant resources and support systems, including relevant and practical professional development

Improving school mental health requires time, resources and knowledge. In a multi-tiered system of support the universal level is focused on supporting the mental health of everyone. Classroom teachers and school-based staff need the knowledge and resources to create supportive school cultures and deliver mental health curriculum. EdCan’s research into K-12 workplace wellbeing shows that educators often feel stretched thin trying to meet the complex needs of their students while delivering the curriculum. With limited time for professional development, relevant, practical learning opportunities are preferred, coupled with time for collaboration and support with implementation.

In addition to these universal level supports, a multi-tiered approach has clear pathways for connecting students with higher needs with specialized supports and mental health professionals in the school or the community. Organizing professional development opportunities, managing a team of school and school-district based specialists, and building partnerships with community organizations requires coordination. Provincial programs such as School Mental Health Ontario and the Centre for Excellence for Mental Health in Quebec provide resources and coaching to school boards as they implement a multi-tiered system of support for their students.

Adequate and stable funding

Adequate and stable funding is essential so that schools and school districts can hire the right mix of people and provide relevant professional development opportunities to implement a multi-tiered system of support. While the need for funding is self-evident, several people we spoke to during our environmental scan spoke about the challenges of hiring qualified staff on short-term contracts with no guarantee of renewal.

Joint funding agreements between health and education support the integrated delivery of higher levels of support. For example, Saskatchewan’s Mental Health Capacity Building program, co-led by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, and Saskatchewan Health Authority, integrates coordinators and promoters into school communities to facilitate development and implementation of homegrown initiatives to support mental health prevention and promotion.

Integration into School Culture

Successful approaches to school mental health adapt activities to the local context: building on the strengths and assets of each school and integrating the diverse needs and community cultures. Throughout our environmental scan, people described the importance of supporting mental health in ways that are culturally relevant and accessible. For example, connections with Elders and land-based experiences were an important part of one northern district’s approach to school mental health. In Nunavut, the Department of Education supports mental health professionals to travel into community to provide in-person service is important, as reliable internet connectivity is a challenge for many northern and remote communities.

Across the country, school district leaders described how having dedicated champions in each school are important for engaging students and community members in developing school-specific approaches and embedding mental health in the school culture. Positive school cultures foster a sense of belonging and normalize conversations around mental health, making it easier to seek help when required.

Community and Stakeholder Engagement

An effective, multi-tiered approach to school mental health creates a continuum of care, connecting students who need extra support with specialized care from health, social services and community organizations. Several provincial initiatives support the development of local partnerships. In PEI, the Department of Education funds student well-being teams, which are local multi-agency teams that work directly with schools. Manitoba’s Community Schools program provides dedicated funding to hire a community connector to bring community and health into schools; a partnership with the Department of Health provides additional funding to provide mental health and addictions support.

Parental and community engagement creates shared ownership around school mental health programs, supports the delivery of accessible and culturally relevant services, and, as one Saskatchewan school division found, increases mental health literacy in the community.

Conclusion

As we consider what is working, both in Canada and around the world, to foster mental health in schools, we see common trends emerge. Essential ingredients for sustained improvements in school mental health include strong leadership, coupled with clear priorities and adequate resources (both human and financial). Successful programs are grounded in evidence while providing enough flexibility to build on the strengths, assets and partnerships in the local community.

References

Neely, K.C., Montemurro, G.R., Storey, K.E. (2020) A Canadian-wide perspective on the essential conditions for taking a comprehensive school health approach. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1907. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-09987-6

March, A., Stapley, E., Hayes, D., Town, R., & Deighton, J. (2022). Barriers and Facilitators to Sustaining School-Based Mental Health and Wellbeing Interventions: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), 3587. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063587