Building and Using a Mental Health Work Group

The mental health work group is a team of individuals committed to developing, implementing, and sustaining the mental health-related services and supports within a Head Start program. The typical mission of this work group is to provide oversight, guidance, and continuing review of mental health-related services and support in your program. Having such a work group can greatly strengthen the quality of your program’s vision of mental health services and approaches.

Earlier in this toolkit, you reviewed the recommendations for using a strategic planning team to develop a mental health strategic plan that can serve as a framework for a comprehensive vision of mental health services within your program. After the strategic planning team completes the strategic planning process, its focus could shift toward taking ownership of the plan and putting it into action. As a result, the strategic planning team can transform into the mental health work group.

The mental health work group will need to meet regularly (at least once a month) to put in place planning and to establish momentum. A functional committee needs an effective and organized convener or chairperson who can move the group through the planning process and who will be responsible for setting meeting agendas, facilitating meetings, and ensuring that the group actively engages in meaningful activities to support mental health in the program.

When forming such a committee, consider your overall program structure — such as how many physically distinct sites you have, how the program communicates and implements program-wide policy, and how information about successes and challenges that staff experience is best communicated to program management. Larger programs may need to make sure that the mental health work group represents all locations or that there is a clear system for communicating information between the various locations and the work group.

Critical to the effectiveness of this work group is that it:

Has a strong leader and committed membership who are actively engaged
Has a clear and meaningful plan of action that guides work group activities
Establishes clear ways to communicate the work group’s plan, activities, and recommendations more broadly to program leadership, staff, and families

Group Leadership

Make sure that the committee has a strong group leader who has the skills needed to facilitate a reflective yet action-oriented approach. The leader needs to be committed to the mental health work group and willing to take the time needed to convene and organize meetings, set agendas, work to engage participants, facilitate meetings, and do follow-up as needed. Often the most appropriate leader is the individual who is directly responsible for mental health and MHC services at the management level. Some programs may have a mental health consultant on staff who plays a broader role in the mental health services and supports and who may be most appropriate leader for the group.

A Plan of Action

The best starting point for the mental health work group is a well-developed mental health strategic plan that clearly reflects your program’s mental health vision. A good strategic plan will include both short- and long-term goals that the mental health work group will address. You may need to spend some time at an initial meeting of the work group identifying and prioritizing the parts of the strategic plan to work on first. Keep the team moving forward on activities, and make sure committee members engage in an ongoing process of working toward specific goals for the mental health services and supports.

Communication

Consider these possible ways to facilitate communication between the mental health work group and program staff, leadership, and families:

Post the program’s mental health vision and strategic plan as well as regular updates somewhere accessible on your program’s website, or use readily available “sharing” software such as Dropbox or Google Docs to allow Web-based access.
Develop a brief list of key actions, decisions, and next steps at the end of each mental health work group meeting to distribute to all staff via email.
Have a report from the work group as a standing agenda item at Policy Council, HMHSAC, leadership team, and staff meetings. Identify key individuals to make these reports at the end of each mental health work group meeting.
Email brief meeting minutes to staff and other interested stakeholders.
Invite specific program staff to share their ideas, experiences, and concerns with the group.

Activity: How Would a Mental Health Work Group Fit in My Program?

Head Start programs are often overloaded with committees, work groups, and other structures that can sometimes seem burdensome instead of productive. Some committees start off with enthusiasm but lose momentum over time. To have an effective mental health work group, give some thought to how to most efficiently build off existing structures in your program, and what makes sense for you and your staff and families. Consider the questions below.

Possible Existing Structures and Tools	Things to Consider
HMHSAC	How can you coordinate the work of the mental health work group with the HMHSAC?
Policy Council	How will you involve families or the Policy Council in your mental health work group?
Staff wellness committee	Do you have a wellness committee? Think about integrating this work into your mental health work group.
Mental health strategic plan	If you don’t have one, think about developing one!
Mental health needs assessment	If you don’t have one, think about doing one!
Community needs assessment	What information from the community needs assessment can support the work of the mental health work group?
Training plan	Do you have a training plan for mental health topics?
Program work plan for mental health	If your program has a work plan, does it adequately address ongoing mental health services and supports?