Integrating Intersectionality, Social Determinants of Health, and Healing: A New Training Framework for School-Based Mental Health

Abstract

Abstract Social justice-centered training has progressed in school psychology, yet training and practice still do not adequately address systems-level influences on mental health, let alone focus on dismantling the systemic inequities that adversely affect the wellbeing of marginalized children and youth. An equity- and intersectional justice-minded framework for training future school psychologists in school-based mental health is presented, informed by the theories of intersectionality, critical race theory, social determinants of health, and radical healing. The proposed framework is based on reflective practice and incorporates three pillars that emphasize the importance of decentralizing psychodiagnostic assessment, centralizing systems-level work, and renewing focus on strengths and healing. To advance training that critically evaluates social factors that affect child wellbeing while honoring children’s identities and strengths, various ways in which graduate programs can enact this paradigm shift are discussed. Future directions for the field, including research and policy, are also presented. Impact Statement This article offers a framework to train school psychologists on how to intervene at the systems and societal levels to promote equity in child mental health. The first pillar emphasizes the need to decentralize psychodiagnostic assessment in school psychology practice—in order to move away from predominantly reactive, deficit-focused assessment activities that perpetuate inequities and to carve out more time for prevention of mental health difficulties and promotion of wellness. The second pillar centralizes systems-level work, particularly through additional training in MTSS, systems-level consultation to build capacity and develop novel initiatives to address social determinants of mental health, and advocacy and policy work. The third pillar involves training with a renewed focus on strengths, as helping marginalized children resist and heal from oppression requires reversing entrenched tendencies to pathologize, and building on individual, familial, and cultural strengths to foster wellbeing.