The mental health Risk Assessment and Management Process (RAMP) for schools: II. Process evaluation

Abstract

The Risk Assessment and Management Process (RAMP) is a whole-school process for the assessment and management of student’s mental health and wellbeing in primary and secondary schools. A process evaluation revealed that RAMP was implemented as intended across six primary and three secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Using the RAMP risk and protective factors monitoring form and screening processes, each school identified ‘at-risk’ students who had not previously been identified or received assistance from welfare staff at the school. School staff and mental health workers from local agencies reported improvements in their knowledge of risk and protective factors, and their ability to identify at-risk students following RAMP. They also reported satisfaction in outcomes for at-risk students managed within the school using RAMP. All the primary schools and one of the secondary schools continued to use some RAMP processes in their school up to 6 months after the initial implementation of the program.

Keywords:

• evaluation
• risk assessment
• schools
• school mental health program
• early intervention
• early identification
• risk and protective factors