A retrospective view of school mental health consultation

General principles of mental health consultation as written about by Coleman and Maddux are enumerated. Historically, the refinement of these principles for school consultation was described in detail in the literature by Gerald Caplan and Irving Berlin. Common methods define the consultees' problems as work problems; the consultant views the consultees' difficulties as due to intrapsychic conflicts. Resolution of the consultees' difficulties requires the consultant to use methods that enhance the consultee's self-esteem and indirectly provide the consultee insight into the genesis of his or her problems. Thus, consultees are gradually better able to help the client with his or her difficulties. Training of child psychiatry residents in school consultation historically occurred in three divisions of child psychiatry. Training methods were quite similar. The history of consultation to school administrators at various levels, the issues that emerged, and methods of helping administrators to deal with these problems are elucidated. Special problems in dealing with school consultation on two American Indian reservations, especially that of gaining entrance into the school, are discussed.