Our approach
School Mental Health Ontario is a provincial implementation support team. We help school districts enhance student mental health through the use of evidence-informed strategies and services.
Our approach to school mental health in Ontario
- Ontario has a comprehensive and systematic multi-year School Mental Health and Addictions Strategy that follows scientific research and responds to student needs and service trends.
- Each school board across the province has a Mental Health Leadership Team that uses this provincial strategy to guide the development of their local School Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, which reflects the needs, context, strengths and resources of their community.
- Every school board has an implementation support coach from School Mental Health Ontario to help them roll out their strategy.
- School boards across the province have access to a range of evidence-informed, implementation-sensitive, identity-affirming programming, resources, professional learning and training to support excellence in school mental health service delivery. This suite of supports is routinely updated as new responsive and research-based programming is identified.
- Ontario educators, school/system leaders, student support staff, school mental health professionals, parents/caregivers and students themselves are involved in the development of mental health resources, learning and programming used in Ontario schools.
Intermediary role (research, policy and practice)
School Mental Health Ontario is an implementation support team that serves an intermediary role between research, policy and practice in school mental health. Working alongside the Ministry of Education (policy), in close partnership with mental health leadership teams in school boards throughout the province (practice), in collaboration with a number of Canadian and international researchers (research), our team provides a bridge to facilitate evidence-informed practice, practice-informed research, and evidence/practice-informed policy.
Research – innovation and scale-up
School Mental Health Ontario is part of a global and national network of leaders in the school mental health space, School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange (SMHILE), Global Leadership Exchange (GLE) and Canadian School Mental Health Leadership Network (CSMHLN). Through this network, innovations in school mental health are shared and leveraged. Via these networks, ongoing scanning and review of the emerging literature and practice suggestions from the field, School Mental Health Ontario identifies promising practices for field testing within our Innovation and Scale-Up Lab (ISU Lab). Between 2020 and 2024, the ISU Lab was jointly housed within School Mental Health Ontario and the Centre for School Mental Health at Western University, co-led by Drs. Claire Crooks, Kathy Short, and Alexandra Fortier. During this period and in the years prior, a number of innovations were studied for fit, feasibility and scale-up.
These include:
- Brief Intervention for School Clinicians (collaboration with the SMART Center at the University of Washington)
- Everyday Mental Health and Faith and Wellness (collaboration with Brock University)
- Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (collaboration with National Center for School Mental Health and Western University)
- Skills4Life Program (collaboration with Social Research and Development Corporation)
- Brief Digital Interventions (now called Brief Coping Interventions) (collaboration with Harvard University and McMaster University)
Learn more: Summary of ISU Lab projects studied through this partnership
The ISU Lab currently resides within the Research Evaluation and Monitoring team at School Mental Health Ontario. Since 2024, the following implementation evaluations have been conducted or are currently underway:
- PreVenture implementation evaluation (collaboration with Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario)
- Balanced Device Use program (collaboration with MediaSmarts)
- Connect Quest Substance Use Health and Balanced Device Use Campaign (collaboration with Cannabis and Mental Health, Schizophrenia Society of Canada)
- Coping in Action program (collaboration with Harvard University)
- Bridges program (internal)
In addition, School Mental Health Ontario is an active collaborator on several grant-funded Canadian research projects, offering implementation and knowledge mobilization support.
Policy – infrastructure and policy
Ontario has built a strong infrastructure for school mental health. Through critical investments from the Ministry of Education, every school board has a Mental Health Leadership Team, typically made up of a superintendent, a mental health leader and clinical managers. These teams coordinate the board’s mental health and addictions strategy and yearly action plan with support from School Mental Health Ontario implementation coaches. Coaches help boards tailor School Mental Health Ontario’s training and resources for their local context. In a cascading manner, schools within districts across Ontario also have teams with responsibility for embedding mental health learning and supports into annual plans, typically led by school administrators. Note that the Ministry of Education also invested in front-line school mental health professionals to serve every secondary school in the province, helping to meet the needs of students with mild to moderate mental health problems through prevention and early intervention services.
This combination of strategic leadership at the province, district and school level, alongside school and clinical staff, provides a rich infrastructure for a comprehensive and sustainable approach to school mental health practice.
Resources to support infrastructure
The Ministry of Education has also introduced thoughtful, research-based policies to facilitate quality and consistency of school mental health practice. Policy and Program Memorandum 169: Student Mental Health outlines 11 essential elements that Ontario school boards must enact and report on each year.
For example, it requires
- all boards to maintain a three-year mental health and addictions strategy with an annual action plan,
- to follow a multi-tiered system of support approach,
- to communicate a suicide prevention, intervention and postvention protocol,
- to meaningfully collaborate with community mental health partners towards the Right Time, Right Care vision.
PPM 169 echoes many of the practices that School Mental Health Ontario has encouraged since its inception – many school districts had these practices well underway when the policy came into effect in 2024. The policy ensures consistent attention to best practices in promotion, prevention, early intervention and connections to more intensive care.
By maintaining a clear framework and shared accountability, Ontario’s education system continues to strengthen its foundation for mentally healthy schools. As an intermediary, School Mental Health Ontario helps to inform policy and supports school districts to meet the associated requirements outlined in policy. For example, the Ministry of Education has recently introduced mandatory mental health modules in grades 7, 8 and 10 to help school districts with one of the key elements in PPM 169, the provision of student mental health literacy in school. School Mental Health Ontario developed these modules in close consultation with many partners and continues to assist boards with implementation support.
Resources to support protocols and processes:
Practice – implementation science
In Ontario, schools are committed to making sure that mental health practices are not only evidence-informed and identity-affirming, but also effective and sustainable. Implementation science helps make this possible.
Implementation science is the study of how to put research into action – how to move from what works in theory, to what works in real classrooms, schools and systems. It helps us to understand what supports successful, lasting change, and what might get in the way.
By applying this knowledge, Ontario schools can deliver mental health supports that are consistent, high-quality and sustainable over time.
Implementation of the multi-tiered system of support is complex and requires a comprehensive approach that highlights both “what” (evidence-informed interventions across the tiers of intervention) and “how” (strong emphasis on foundational infrastructure and implementation supports to promote scalability and sustainability).
Interventions + infrastructure + implementation support = effective, scalable and sustainable school mental health practice.
Building for the long term
Implementation science supports Ontario’s tiered approach to school mental health – promotion, prevention and early intervention – by helping schools build the capacity to deliver effective supports at each level.
This means:
- providing coaching for mental health leadership teams
- offering role-specific professional learning for school staff, clinicians and leaders
- creating feedback loops, listening (especially for student voice) and iteratively enhancing programming and resources
- monitoring outcomes to guide and improve decision-making
- scaling up gradually and sustainably rather than relying on one-time or fragmented initiatives
These steps make mental health part of the everyday work of schools, ensuring that every student, no matter where they live or learn, has access to consistent, identity-affirming mental health support.
What this looks like in practice
Implementation science in Ontario schools involves several key actions that make change intentional, collaborative and sustainable:
Mental health leadership teams – every board and school benefits from a dedicated team that guides planning and ensures mental health practices are introduced and supported effectively.
- Shared responsibility – students, families, educators and community partners all help shape the process, so supports reflect real needs and experiences.
- Supportive environments – schools and boards must create the right conditions: policies, training, resources and culture that allow good practices to take root.
When implementation is done well, mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention practices become part of everyday school life, not just short-term projects. This means every student can benefit from consistent, identity-affirming mental health supports that contribute to their well-being and success.