The 17th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health will be held October 25-27, 2012 at the Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek (75 S. West Temple) in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Conference is sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH) and the IDEA Partnership (funded by the Office of Special Education Programs [OSEP], sponsored by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education). The theme of the 17th Annual Conference is "School Mental Health: Promoting Positive Outcomes for Students, Families, Schools, and Communities." Save-the-date!

The conference emphasizes a shared school-family-community agenda to bring high quality and evidence-based mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention to students in general and special education and their families. The conference features twelve specialty tracks with over 100 sessions, outstanding plenary sessions, intensive trainings, advanced practice skills workshops, symposia, and a poster session and networking reception. The conference offers speakers and participants numerous opportunities to advance knowledge and skills and to network related to school mental health practice, research, training, and policy. The intended audience for the conference includes clinicians, educators, youth and family members, nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, and other youth-serving professionals.

Tentative Conference Brochure

Conference Objectives

As a result of attending this conference, participants will be able to:
1) List at least three major barriers to evidence-based practice in school mental health and identify at least three strategies to overcome them.
2) Define the concept of family-school-community partnership.
3) Develop written achievable strategies for program evaluation, focusing on outcomes valued by school and community stakeholders.
4) List at least three strategies to build policy support for school mental health.

Awards

The Juanita Evans Memorial Award, and the Youth and Family Partnership Award are presented each year at the Annual Conference. Nominations for the awards will be accepted until August 15, 2012.

For more information on attending the 17th Annual Conference

• Registration Fees and Information
• Travel Arrangements
• Exhibitors

Archived Presentations and Program Booklets

• PowerPoint presentations from the 16th Annual Conference in Charleston, South Carolina.
• Program Booklets

Sponsorship
The Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health is sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH) in collaboration with the IDEA Partnership, sponsored by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). 

Conference Disclaimer
The CSMH at the University of Maryland School of Medicine does not endorse or approve any commercial products. While it is usually unnecessary, the CSMH reserves the right to substitute or cancel sessions.

American Disabilities Act
If you require special accommodations to attend or participate in the 17^th Annual Conference, please provide information about your requirements to CSMH (410-706-0980) at least 10 business days in advance of this event.