School psychologists, counselors, and educators in the K-12 setting face the daunting responsibility of finding balance between mandated testing, students’ mental-health concerns, and additional academic help for at-risk students. One solution to this dilemma is to implement a school-based mental health approach that combines learning and counseling needs into a single program. Several types of successful programs are available, though week-long intensive programs have recently increased in popularity. Group-Centered Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students focuses on the development of such a week-long prevention program, and provides professionals with step-by-step directions to create their own program. It also focuses on the use of group-centered interventions as an opportunity to prevent at-risk behaviors as a means of correcting or changing dysfunctional behavior. This highly readable volume addresses such challenging issues as: Using self-reflection to teach writing skills. Increasing interpersonal interaction while honing etiquette. Enhancing group acceptance and reading comprehension. Rebuilding self-efficacy by increasing word recognition and decoding skills. With its solid research foundation combined with clear, practical program descriptions, this volume is an essential addition to the libraries of researchers and practitioners alike in the disciplines of school psychology, education, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, and clinical child psychology.

After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students offers professionals a detailed framework for developing and enhancing after-school programs. Emphasizing a prevention focus and a group-centered interactive approach, the book's year-long model combines education and counseling, incorporating key therapeutic objectives to foster academic and behavior skills and reduce problems in and outside class. Practical step-by-step guidelines for creating and implementing programs include clear rationales, instructive design and case examples, and ready-to-use interventions. The author also provides guidance on developmental, gender, and cultural considerations, the challenges of maintaining progress over the course of the school year, and the handling of severe learning and emotional problems. Among the topics covered: Organizing a group-centered after-school program. Combining learning and counseling into one curriculum. The role of motivation in an ongoing year-long program. Group process, self-efficacy, cohesion: applying the principles of change. Interaction in a year-long program. Solving problems and conflicts. After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students is an essential reference for scientist-practitioners, clinicians, and academics in such disciplines as school psychology, childhood education, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, and learning and instruction.

This fourth book in the Prevention Practice Kit introduces the topic of prevention groups and illustrates how to apply that definition to real-world settings for counselors, psychologists, mental health workers, and prevention specialists working with groups in schools, hospitals, community organizations, and private practice. Readers will find practical suggestions on how to design, conduct, and organize prevention groups such as psychoeducational groups, group-centered prevention groups, and therapy prevention groups. Examples from research, along with case study examples, help to illustrate important concepts in both theory and practice.

This book presents the concept of group-centered prevention and provides explanations and exercises for learning the method and teaching it to others. Detailed studies offer evidence for the continuing importance of prevention in mental well-being and distinguishes group-centered prevention from other group interventions by its ability to resolve incipient mental health issues and emotional problems. Case examples with adults, children, couples, and others demonstrate successful uses of group-centered techniques as well as illustrate the problems that arise in group settings. The book's ready-to-apply training exercises give prospective group leaders practice in starting new groups, fostering cohesion, integrating therapeutic factors into sessions, and other core skills. Featured topics include: Group-centered prevention in contrast with other group interventions. Characteristics of effective leaders in group-centered prevention. Benefits of prevention groups as opposed to those gained in counseling and therapy. Key constructs of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation in group-centered prevention. Stages of development in new groups. Formats for developing training exercises. Group-Centered Prevention in Mental Health is an essential resource for scientist-practitioners, clinicians, and researchers as well as graduate students in such disciplines as school psychology, social work, and public health. Its educational uses span classroom, workshop, and training settings across the health and healing disciplines.

"The authors conducted a prevention program called Fast Track, consisting of multicomponent, home-school prevention activities carried out with at-risk children from first to 10th grades over a 10-year period, to prevent serious antisocial behavior and youth violence and achieve positive social, emotional, and academic outcomes. They describe the research that informed the design of the program as part of their Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, how the study was implemented, and outcomes up to 20 years later. They discuss the context for youth violence prevention in the US; the developmental and intervention research that informed the design of the program; the study design and the children and families who participated in it; interventions and impacts in elementary, middle, and high school years; early adult outcomes of the program; implications for developmental theory and research on the prevention of violence; and how communities can address the problem of future violence by focusing on high-risk young children."--Provided by publisher.

In addition to introducing readers to the field of family-based prevention science, Family-Based Prevention Programs for Children and Adolescents highlights the distinctive contributions of a set of exemplary programs in terms of their foundational theory, design, delivery mechanisms, performance, and unique opportunities for future research. It is organized into three sections to orient readers to: the existence of different types of family-based programs targeting families with children of different ages; the strategies and challenges that arise when attempting large-scale dissemination of prevention programs; and, the emerging innovations that promise to push the field forward into uncharted territories. Each chapter is written by a preeminent program developer, including: Gene H. Brody Richard F. Catalano Patricia Chamberlain Thomas J. Dishion Marion S. Forgatch Kevin P. Haggerty Cleve Redmond Matthew R. Sanders Richard L. Spoth Carolyn Webster-Stratton Contributors review the state of the research and then provide a summary of their own program, including research and dissemination efforts. They also discuss take-home lessons for practitioners and policymakers, and provide their view of the future of program development and research in their area. As an important signpost signifying the noteworthy achievements of the field to date, as well as an arrow pointing the field toward significant growth in the future, this book is a must-have primary resource for graduate students in developmental or clinical psychology, counseling, family sciences, social work, or health policy, and an essential guide for practitioners and policymakers in the field of family-based prevention, family service delivery, or public health.

This Brief provides the theoretical foundation of the Camp Sharigan program, while discussing its practical applications and summarizing research studies. It addresses the question often raised in literature and in school-based settings: What is the most effective way to teach children to read? Chapters explore a group-centered approach to correcting reading failure and offers research-based field studies to demonstrate the success of the Camp Sharigan method. The group-centered theory combines learning and counseling into the same program to strengthen education and mental health. In addition, creative-art therapy techniques are also explained and demonstrated. Featured topics in this Brief include: Vowel clustering and its use in improving phonemic awareness. Why group-centered prevention is better for teaching. The importance of cohesion and cohesive-learning in group-centered prevention. The use of individualized rotation to increase motivation and instruction in children who struggle to read. Teaching At-Risk Students to Read is as an essential resource for psychology and educational professionals as well as researchers and graduate students who are interested in improving teaching methods with at-risk students, reducing school dropout rates, increasing intrinsic motivation for struggling readers, changing to an effective method for teaching children to read, improving student engagement, and strengthening self-regulated learning.