| Sumario: | Background: School-based mental health services, particularly when integrated into multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), offer an evidence-based strategy for primary and secondary prevention and targeted intervention for students' mental health challenges. Team-based decision-making is at the center of successful MTSS, but the mental health literacy of school staff on these teams is unknown. Purpose: The current study aims to describe the state of MTSS team members' mental health literacy and evaluate how mental health literacy components are related to one another. Methods: We measured the mental health literacy of MTSS team members (N = 58; 59% White; 92% female) from nine elementary schools, including their understanding of students' mental health in the school context and their willingness to promote it. Results: MTSS team members reported more positive than negative mental health literacy, and mental health literacy constructs were predictably and positively interrelated. Discussion: Overall, the group appeared to favor approaches aligned with school-based mental health and social, emotional, and behavioral MTSS. Future research should replicate study results with a larger sample in order to increase the precision of the estimates and confirm the pattern of findings. Translation to Health Education Practice: MTSS team members typically demonstrate an understanding of students' underlying mental health needs in the context of school and a personal and organizational willingness to address those needs. Staff training and system-level changes would likely further improve mental health literacy, with anticipated positive impacts on school-based mental health and MTSS outcomes.
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