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Capstone Abstract
Context: The mental health and social-emotional needs of youth have dramatically increased since the pandemic, and there is a lack of mental health professionals to address these needs. Schools are uniquely situated to help address this growing need since they are where students spend significant amounts of their childhood.
Problem: Occupational therapy practitioners offer a unique perspective when addressing mental health and social-emotional needs in the school setting. However, occupational therapists are often not considered on interdisciplinary teams when planning interventions to address these needs within schools.
Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop and implement a social-emotional learning intervention to show the value of occupational therapy in this area of practice within the school setting.
Rationale: The execution and dissemination of this work was important to advocate for occupational therapy’s role in addressing the growing social-emotional and mental health needs of youth. This project contributes to increasing the limited amount of literature on this topic.
Methods/Implementation: A semi-standardized social-emotional curriculum was used with students, and pre-post surveys of both faculty and students were utilized to investigate the effects of these lessons. Interdisciplinary collaboration and dissemination of research was used to advocate for occupational therapy’s role in providing these services.
Results/Findings: The pre-post surveys of faculty and students did not show statistically significant findings, likely due to limitations of the study; however, an overall positive trend was noted in the results. Faculty was willing to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration to develop and implement a tier 1 social-emotional learning program, and there was a general acceptance of the work done during the project by all stakeholders.
Significance/Implications: Occupational therapy practitioners in schools should advocate for a role in interdisciplinary planning teams to ensure all perspectives are considered when addressing social-emotional and mental health needs of youth.
Publication Date
Fall 2025
Student Contact
rlcameron05@gmail.com
Recommended Citation
Cameron, Richelle, "Curving the Crisis: Effects of Emotional Regulation Lessons in Schools" (2025). Occupational Therapy Capstones. 21.
https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/ot_capstone/21
