- Only a minority of students with suicidal ideation or those who attempt suicide have received mental health services.
- One approach to improving this situation is through voluntary health screening and subsequent referral to either community-based services or school-based services.
- In a retrospective review of five years of mental health screening, almost 20% of those screened were found to be at risk and the majority of those were currently not receiving any treatment.
Systematic voluntary school-based mental health screening and referral offers a feasible means of identifying and connecting high-risk adolescents to school- and community-based mental health services, although linkages to community-based services may require considerable coordination.
Source: Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Source reference:
Husky MM, et al “Mental health screening and follow-up care in public high schools” J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2011; 50(9): 881-891.
