Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Project Prepare, Engage, Assess, Respond, Link, Sustain (PEARLS) - Project Prepare, Engage, Assess, Respond, Link, Sustain (PEARLS) is a partnership between the University of Iowa, the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD), and local community, government, and mental health agencies, to provide mental health awareness training (MHAT) to K-12 community stakeholders in Johnson County and improve linkages to care for Iowa’s school-aged youth (ages 5-18). Project PEARLS will focus on 9 schools with high rates of racial/ethnic minority (REM) students and free and reduced lunch (FRL) recipients and train 1000 K-12 community stakeholders over five years. These populations to be served include: (a) 700 K-12 school personnel (600 of whom are teachers) in target schools serving 4,818 K-12 students, (b) 200 parents/guardians/caregivers of children with serious mental illness (SMI) and/or social emotional disturbances (SED), (c) 50 before- and after-school care providers, and (d) 50 law enforcement personnel. Project PEARLS will integrate and manualize 4 evidence-based practices (EBPs) to guide our intervention, including: 1) SAMHSA’s Ready, Set, Go, Review; 2) Psychological First Aid; 3) Cultural Competency & Humility Best Practices; and 4) Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. The empirically-supported Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications-Enhanced (FRAME, Sirman, Baumann, & Miller, 2019) will inform content- and context-based adaptations across these four EBPs. Our resultant curriculum will guide the delivery of 50 training sessions across stakeholder groups. Project PEARLS goals reflect ICCSD and community needs, and include: 1) establish a coalition of community stakeholders to address the mental health needs of school-aged youth; 2) adapt, integrate, and implement the 4 evidence-based frameworks to address the mental health needs of school-aged youth; 3) increase mental health screening and linkages to care for school-aged youth; and 4) train community stakeholders to (a) recognize signs and symptoms of SMI and SED, (b) implement crisis de-escalation and stabilization techniques, (c) refer and track youth in need of mental health services, and (d) practice self-care strategies for providing mental health services. Measurable objectives include: 1) forming a Community Coalition of K-12 stakeholders to facilitate needs assessment, community engagement and recruitment, 2) establishing a pipeline for referral, linkages to care, and follow up of K-12 students with SMI and SED 3) integrating the 4 EBPs into a streamlined curriculum with FRAME as an implementation science framework, 4) launching Project PEARLS website and social media to aid in recruitment and knowledge dissemination, 5) finalizing a responsive referral network of community mental health providers for K-12 students with SMI and SED; 6) finalizing a formal, confidential, and developmentally-appropriate referral and follow-up process to screen K-12 students and provide linkages to community mental health providers, and 7) training and assessing a) 700 school personnel, with 100-year 1, 150-year 2, 175-year 3, 175- year 4, and 100-year 5, b) 200 parents/guardians/caregivers, with 50-years 2-5; c) 50 before- and after-school providers, with 25 each-years 3-4, and d) 50 law enforcement personnel, with 25 each-years 3-4.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).