Transforming School Mental Health with Dr. Sharon Hoover
School mental health is bigger than adding more services.
In this conversation, Jennifer Ulie, Ph.D. is joined by Dr. Sharon Hoover, a national leader in school mental health and Co-Director of the National Center for School Mental Health.
Together, they explore what it actually takes to build effective mental health supports in schools, from implementation and infrastructure to sustainability, access, and the role of the adults and systems surrounding students.
School administrators, educators, school mental health professionals, counselors, social workers, psychologists, district leaders, community partners, and anyone working to strengthen mental health supports for students.
What does it take to move from isolated programs to a real school mental health system?
Why adding individual services is not enough and why schools need coordinated structures, clear roles, and an intentional continuum of support.
How strong ideas can fail when implementation, leadership, staffing, communication, or integration into everyday school practice is weak.
Why effective school mental health systems must consider who receives support, who gets missed, and what barriers exist across students, families, and communities.
What helps mental health initiatives survive beyond a grant, a champion, or a single school year and become part of how the system operates.
If student mental health is a school priority, what structures have we built to make that priority possible?
Do staff have the knowledge, support, roles, and capacity required to respond effectively?
Are mental health practices integrated into daily school routines rather than treated as separate initiatives?
Do policy, data, leadership, partnerships, funding, and implementation reinforce the work?
Where is your school mental health work dependent on individual people rather than supported by the system?
Use this episode as a leadership discussion, professional learning resource, or starting point for examining how mental health is currently organized, implemented, and sustained in your school or district.
MyMensana 2026