"Promoting mental health through schools supports a whole school approach involving effective mental health promotion, intervention and treatment. This approach is supported by policies, skills for social emotional learning, a healthy psycho-social school environment and access to services in the school or in the broader community. The full participation of teachers, students, families and community agencies is encouraged with informed dialogue and collaboration among people and programmes throughout all phases of the continuum. This action is supported by principles that value diversity and inclusiveness, and practice that creates conditions for empowerment and school organizational development."

• Universal mental health promotion, which seeks to improve school psychosocial environments, skills-based health education for social, emotional learning and brings resources and programs to all students to promote health, successful teaching and learning and academic success;
• Selective interventions, which provide prevention programs for young people presenting risk factors for problems;
• Indicated interventions, which provide early interventions to young people exhibiting emotional and behavioural problems; and
• Treatment, which provides more intensive services to youth presenting established emotional/behavioural problems.
  

• adjustments to the core operations of schools such as student/staff conduct policies, student evaluation, promotion/failing/retention procedures, student recognition programs, programs to support transitions into primary school, between primary and secondary school and onto further studies or the workforce
  
• policy interventions including school and youth policies of health authorities and social service agencies as well as school boards
• instructional interventions including improved curriculum design and content, effective MH promotion and prevention programs and materials, teaching methods, parent involvement in take home activities and peer instruction
• health, mental health, social and other services including early identification, screening, support for students in treatment or managing an illness, support for reintegration after treatment, brief counseling interventions and the roles played by several professionals and their employing agencies including school psychologists, social workers, pediatricians, public health nurses, police officers, guidance counsellors, classroom teachers and others
• a variety of social support programs including peer helper programs, student friendship programs, mentoring programs, parent involvement, education and support programs, school activities, participation in community awareness programs, working with self-help and community-based organizations, staff wellness programs and more
• changes to the physical environment of schools such as stress-reducing modifications to school grounds, attention to light, air ventilation, and more.
• preparing new and experienced teachers to address mental health issues through university-based teacher education programs and ongoing staff development
  

1. The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) , the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Health Canada (HC), Justice Canada (JC) and other relevant federal departments and knowledge/research agencies (such as the Canadian Population Health Initiative and CIHR Institutes) ensure that school mental health policies, programs and research are explicitly included and funded in their respective strategies and initiatives.
   
   
2. Education, health, law enforcement and other ministries in the provinces and territories develop and implement inter-ministry policies, agreements, programs, guidelines and funding mechanisms to support and require inter-agency and inter-disciplinary cooperation to promote the mental health of young people through school-based and school-linked initiatives.
   
   
3. Local school boards, health authorities, police departments and mental health agencies/professionals develop and maintain partnerships, programs and collaborative actions on mental health, integrating them within broader strategies on healthy schools, safe & caring schools or similar policy/action frameworks.
   
   
4. Existing national and regional initiatives, networks, university centres and other organizations be brought together to develop a collaborative and coherent knowledge development, synthesis and exchange strategy. These existing mechanisms include the MHCC Knowledge Exchange Centre, the PHAC Canadian Best Practices Initiative, the CPHI Mental Health initiative, the MHCC Evergreen initiative on youth mental health, the national Community of Practice on School Mental Health, provincial/territorial centres of excellence in MH, annual conferences in the education, health and mental health sector and more. This KDE strategy should build on current PHAC and MHCC initiatives that are taking local programs to national scale in areas such as positive mental health and stigma. As well, the KDE strategy should make use of new web-based technologies to access expertise and experiences from other countries as well as facilitate ongoing exchanges across Canada.
   

• programs should address the needs of the whole child over the life course. This includes attention being paid not only to the ends of the continuum (positive MH and mental illness) but also to the mid-range concerns and problems such as loneliness, stress, divorce, bereavement as well as the intersections with other health and social problems.
• programs should be based on relevant and proven behavioural theories and approaches such as social intelligence, attachment theory, health and normative beliefs and others
• programs should not only seek to prevent or reduce problems but also build strengths, resilience and assets
• the needs of specific populations (children of families living with a mental illness, FASD, special needs and others) as well as local community conditions (aboriginal, rural, multi-ethnic, religious and others) need to be addressed
• ministries, agencies and schools should strive towards multi-intervention programs delivered through comprehensive approaches (multi-issue, multi-level, multi-system), coordinated agency-school programs (on mental health or aspects of MH) and whole school (engaging educators only)
  
• interventions should be based on the highest possible research evidence and be tested and adapted through data-based experience and reflection
• evidence-based implementation models and theories about systems change should be used to plan program development, delivery and evaluation
• school-based and school-linked mental health programs must fit within the primary mandates of schools as well as be cognizant of their constraints, organizational cultures and professional norms/preoccupations
• baseline capacities such as minimum instructional time/learning objectives, maximum waiting times for delivery of assessment and treatment services, staffing ratios for school and clinical staff and other aspects need to be defined and them monitored
  
• system and organizational capacities such as coordinated policy, assignment of coordinators, formal and informal mechanisms for cooperation, ongoing knowledge exchange and workforce development, regular monitoring and reporting, strategic issue management and explicit sustainability planning need to be developed and monitored
• policy-makers, researchers, officials and advocates need to consider how school mental health programs fit with and within the large, complex systems and the ecology of local community/agency/school so that their plans and programs are more apt to be adopted, implemented and sustained.