Given sparse resources, this means serving a small proportion of the many students who require assistance and doing so in a limited way. A Term with Wide Appeal Comprehensiveness is becoming a buzzword. Comprehensiveness requires developmental and holistic perspectives that are translated into an extensive continuum of programs focused on individuals, families, and the environment. Included are programs designed to promote and maintain safety at home and at school, programs to promote and maintain physical and mental health, preschool and early school adjustment programs, programs to improve and augment ongoing social and academic supports, programs to intervene prior to referral, and programs providing intensive treatment. This scope of activity underscores why mechanisms for ongoing interprogram collaboration are essential.
Schools are the focus of several initiatives aspiring to comprehensiveness.
Given the limited number of staff at such clinics, it is not surprising that the demand for psychosocial and mental health interventions quickly outstrips available resources. School-based and linked health clinics can provide only a restricted range of interventions to a limited number of students. Thus, the desire of such clinics to be comprehensive centers in the full sense of the term remains thwarted. Joy Dryfoos encompasses the trend to develop school-based health clinics, youth service programs, community schools, and other similar activity under the rubric of full service schools. To date, the reality of this desire for comprehensiveness remains mostly a vision.