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Screening Our Teens: One Small Step, One
Significant Impact
Op-Ed by Senator Jane C. Orie (R-40)
All
parents want to believe they know every detail of their child’s life -- the
highs and the lows, the successes and the struggles. Parents also depend on
schools to help in this endeavor, noticing if a student is having trouble or
needs extra attention. As such, parents expect schools to use every proven tool
or approach available to improve student achievement and establish a path of
success, now and in the future.
Because of this, most schools regularly screen
students for health issues such as vision, hearing, and scoliosis. We do it
because screening works. We do it because we recognize that the first step
toward prevention is recognition. And we do it because a child in good health
-- physically, mentally, and emotionally -- is more successful in the classroom.
As a nation, though, we have been slow to implement
school-based mental health screenings. Such screenings could immediately help
more than three million U.S. teenagers. And that help could play an enormous
role in reducing a leading cause of death in high school students -- suicide.
Here in Pennsylvania, many young people are
suffering from serious problems that often aren’t recognized by parents or
teachers. Thousands of adolescents in Pennsylvania suffer silently with
depression that can lead to suicide, the third leading cause of death for young
Pennsylvanians ages 15 to 24. In Pennsylvania, it is estimated that 74,000 high
school students make an attempt at suicide; 160,000 have entertained thoughts of
suicide; and many, many more are subject to anxiety, depression, or substance
abuse. Mental illness and substance abuse are typically found to have been
factors in youth suicide. Nationally, more then 500,000 children require medical
attention each year for a suicide attempt.
Columbia University recently conducted a national
poll of parents with children under the age of 18. The poll results showed that
parents are deeply concerned with the mental health of their children and
recognize that depression and suicide are public health and safety issues that
affect all families and all communities. And while 90 percent were confident
they could determine if their child was thinking about suicide, the majority
said they did not think other parents would know if their child
was depressed or considering suicide.
Clearly, there is a disconnect. The science tells
us that one in 10 American children and teenagers suffer from mental illness and
experience impairment, yet only 20 percent of those children are getting help.
If 80 percent of children aren’t getting the help that they need, then our
efforts to just eyeball our children and determine their mental health risks
isn’t working.
What can we do? There is a wealth of scientifically
sound data that demonstrates that mental health screenings, as simple as
completing a quick questionnaire on a computer screen, can successfully identify
at-risk students.
Late last year, President Bush’s New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health spotlighted the crucial role that mental health
screenings play in early detection and intervention. Without screenings, high
school students enter “a downward spiral that can include school failure,
depression, and suicide.”
Mental health screenings, such as those administered
through the Columbia University TeenScreen program, are beginning to make a
positive impact. Throughout the nation, schools and parents are seeing that a
short, 10-minute test can identify those students who are most at risk for
mental health problems. They know it can be done in a cost-effective manner,
through a simple screening and dedicated follow-up. And they know it really
works.
I introduced Senate Resolution 52 in March 2003 to
recognize that mental illness and suicide among our young people are public
health concerns. The resolution would urge that every child be screen for
mental illness, both to identify a disorder and to prevent suicide. But I am
even more gratified because our state has implemented screening programs in
three communities, Pittsburgh, Langhorne, and Erie.
Soon after introducing SR52, Columbia University
researchers were asked to appear before a joint Senate and House Committees
hearing on their screening program, TeenScreen. Immediately after that
legislative hearing, representatives of Columbia University met with an
administrative work group which had formulated the Pennsylvania Suicide
Prevention Plan to provide information on how the Columbia model might be
implemented at more Pennsylvania sites.
Senator Arlen Specter saw the issue of teen suicide
as so important that he provided $75,000 to Potter County for counseling and
peer intervention. Since Potter County, a most rural area, has had a unique
experience with teen suicide, Senator Specter indicated that he will hold
hearings on the issue when the results of the initially funded programs are in.
From what I have seen with TeenScreen and other
screening programs, the President’s Commission is absolutely correct. We should
have screening programs up and running in all 50 states, and every high school
student should receive a mental health screening before graduation. It is that
important. But how do we get there? How do we move this proven research into
community practice?
The answer is simple. We need to start spreading
the word. A White House report only carries so much weight. The isolated
successes of individual screening programs only reach so far. We all have a
responsibility to move the issue forward in our own schools and in our own
community.
To do this, we must bring information about
screening programs and their successes directly to school health personnel,
including school nurses, social workers, and psychologists. These individuals
are in the best position to understand screening’s importance and incorporate it
into school programs. And we need to work with school principals and
administrators to implement school-based mental health screenings. They have
the greatest authority and have the power to make it happen.
The research is clear: School-based mental health
screenings work. It now falls to us to ensure that every high school student
receives a mental health screening before graduation. Their very futures depend
on it.
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