Identifying Mental Health Initiatives for Independently Funded Christian Elementary Schools in Ontario

This study seeks to understand the use of mental health strategies within independently funded Christian elementary Schools (IFCES), while considering how research literature identifies the implementation of mental health strategies in publicly funded elementary schools. There is a major research gap for IFCES in this area. This study used a qualitative approach via structured interviews to gather data reflecting how IFCES provide mental health supports. A wide variety of programming and supports within the schools (both IFECS and publicly funded) were identified during the research process. While the tiered system of support has been strongly considered in research literature (Sanchez, Cornacchio, Poznanski, Golik, Chou, & Comer, 2018), the IFECS sector did not intentionally use this framework as a support to implement a mental health plan. This study identified that IFECS are gaining momentum in mental health programming and would benefit further from utilizing a framework to address their growing mental health needs.