Enhancing Equity in Social-Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health in Schools: Lessons for Prevention Science

The presenters bring unique insights regarding how Social Emotional Behavioral Mental Health programs and policies can more explicitly focus on promoting equity, reducing disparities, and mitigating individual and systemic biases, as well as how researchers can partner with schools, districts, educators, students, and communities in order to engage in this equity-driven work. Some presentations focus on incorporating an equity lens into the development and implementation of particular SEBMH programs. Together, the presenters will highlight their experiences identifying equity gaps in existing programs and policies, determining potential mechanisms of change for addressing those gaps, as well as the collaborative processes to ensure that equity is incorporated throughout multiple aspects of the project. We will then facilitate an active discussion with attendees. Although this session will be grounded in school-based prevention, we believe the take-away messages can be applied to reducing disparities and moving toward anti-racist research across multiple domains of prevention.