Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the training of Indiana public school building-level administrators preservice education in mental health topics related to students. One overarching research question guided the researcher: What training in identifying mental health needs and services have current Indiana building-level administrators received from public or private colleges and universities in Indiana?” The study focused on educators in Indiana with less than 5 years of experience as a building-level administrator. Five principals were virtually interviewed to survey their knowledge and comfort with mental health. Open coding was used to determine the themes from the transcriptions of the interviews and field notes. NVivo 11 software was used to verify the themes. Four primary themes were identified: 1) There are not enough mental health employees and services available to schools. 2) There is a need and desire for mental health services for students in schools. 3) Education about mental health has not occurred during administrative preservice programming, leaving administrators to piece together training about mental health. 4) Building administrators acknowledge the positive benefits of mental health services. This research study found none of the participants had received training about mental health services from their preservice administrative programming at a college or university. This has led all of them to learn about mental health on their own. This has implications for preservice training programs, community mental health centers, other helping professions, and future legislation, policy and rules. Further research about how well-prepared building-level administrators feel about mental health in other states may influence changes to programming accreditation requirements. The exploration of how prepared school–community mental health center (CMHC) partners believe they are to be part of the school environment may affect how partnerships are created and agreed upon.

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