The Health, Mental Health, and Safety Guidelines for Schools (HMHSGS). 

A new resource for school psychologists as well as school nurses, health educators, and other educational professionals responsible for the health and safety of students is now available:  The Health, Mental Health, and Safety Guidelines for Schools (HMHSGS).   To help schools deal with issues that vary from violence to substance abuse to obesity, more than 300 health, mental health, safety, school health and education professionals joined together in developing the HMHSGS. The project was led by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration/Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA/MCHB).  Representatives from the American Psychological Association collaborated in this process.

This compendium of guidelines is likely to become a major resource, if not the very first resource one turns, for anyone who is trying to improve school health in their state, district or local school. Never before has one school health document provided guidelines on so many different aspects of school health and had this depth of inter-professional collaboration.

Topics included in the HMHSGS are:

* Overarching School Health and Safety Issues * Family and Community Involvement

* Health and Mental Health Services * Health and Safety Education

* Nutrition and Food Services * Physical Education

* Physical Environment and Transportation * Social Environment

* Staff Health and Safety

Health, mental health, and safety are inextricably linked to student achievement. Poor nutrition, impaired vision or hearing, dental pain, sleep deficiency, substance abuse, anxiety about home life, anxiety about relations with peers and exposure to violence are examples of health and safety issues associated with low achievement in school. Complementary to the idea of optimizing health, mental health and safety to improve student achievement, is the understanding that an educated public benefits the health and safety of the population.

Users may print out hard copies of the guidelines off the Web site.

Please visit: www.nationalguidelines.org

The guidelines are also available for free download at http://www.schoolhealth.org.