Abstract With the alarming increase in the mental health needs of youth today, traditional preservice preparation training programs for school-based personnel in the area of mental health are overwhelmingly insufficient. While school professionals often lack basic specific evidence-based knowledge and skills to identify and intervene with students at risk for mental illness, they also lack the personal resources to understand their own mental health concerns which include how to effectively cope with job stress, while increasing teaching effectiveness and job satisfaction. Therefore, there is a call for a paradigm shift at the preservice level to better prepare all school-based personnel, including teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists, social workers and nurses to proactively confront the mental health challenges of today's youth and the difficulties they face in serving those students. In this article, the authors provide evidence to illustrate the need for training in the area of preventative strengths-based mental health. Traditional training programs designed for school-based personnel are discussed, followed by suggestions for the implementation of strengths-based performance standards for all individuals preparing to work in the school environment. Finally, an innovative online graduate degree program, located at a unique university-based center dedicated to implementing a prevention, strengths-based mental health approach to educating school personnel, is discussed.
