A Program Design to Provide Depression Literacy to Elementary School Teachers to Improve Teacher Well-Being and Their Responses to Students' Mental Health Needs

This dissertation developed the Teach program, a psychoeducation program for teachers. Teach is based on research demonstrating a positive correlation between teacher depression literacy and the mental health and academic success of their students, in addition to improved teacher-student relationships. Studies also found that stress management education and mental health coaching improves the mental well-being of teachers. The Teach program integrates these two effective psychoeducational approaches into one seamless program. It provides depression literacy to 5th-grade elementary school teachers to increase their awareness of student depression, impart skills to reduce students' symptoms of depression in the classroom, and therefore improve student outcomes. In recognition of high stress and burnout in the Teaching profession, Teach combines psychoeducation on stress and wellness, and optional mental health coaching for teachers. This unique integration of depression literacy and teacher wellness may be particularly beneficial given the escalating rates of depression in youth since COVID and the high attrition rates amongst teachers. The Teach program would provide efficient, cost-effective psychoeducation that could easily be adapted to other grade levels and mental health issues. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]