The MTSS and Equity Associates Collaborative Care Models share a common goal of providing a continuum of care that emphasizes evidence-based services, progress monitoring, and data-driven decision making based on student needs. Therefore these teams could be integrated to enhance the school mental health service delivery model and assure coordination of mental health and school-based academic and social/emotional support services (Lyon et al., 2016).
The MTSS framework is typically less specific with regard to the roles and functions of participating professions and could be enhanced by the integration of Equity Associates Collaborative Care Model in supporting MTSS objectives of integrating tier-2 and tier 3 social-emotional and mental health interventions that are often inaccessible through school resources alone (Lyon et al., 2016).
“Attention to, and evidence for, Tier 1 services within MTSS has grown rapidly nationwide (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011), however many schools are struggling with day-to-day implementation efforts (VanDerHeyden & Burns, 2010). Furthermore, far fewer studies and less guidance is available to inform Tier 2 and 3 services (Bruns et al., 2016) and a significant gap between “what works” and what actually gets implemented, particularly in relation to school-based mental health, remains (Forman et al., 2013; Owens et al., 2014). Integration of components of the CC approach, such as navigating entry into appropriate services, delivering a continuum of selective and indicated behavioral health supports, and systematizing effective behavioral health progress monitoring, could facilitate achievement of MTSS objectives” (Lyon et al., 2016).
