Troubled Teens and Suicide
An issue that is a constant when working with youth in schools for troubled teens is evaluating for depression. Though depression is most usually associated with girls, recent reports cite teen suicide statistics that indicate that depression can affect both genders. Depression is not always indicated by sadness and dejection. Hostility, aggression and belligerence are also manifestations of depression.
The Penn State massacre has prompted closer scrutiny on teen mental health assessments, with some advocates suggesting mental health evaluations for teens be mandatory while others promote voluntary screening. Such a program has been made available to communities throughout the nation.
Relevant Tags:mental health evaluations, schools for troubled teens, teen depression, teen suicide, teen mental health“The goal of the Columbia University TeenScreen Program is to ensure that all parents are offered the opportunity for their teens to receive a voluntary mental health check-up. The program’s primary objective is to help young people and their parents through the early identification of mental health problems, such as depression. Parents of youth found to be at possible risk are notified and helped with identifying and connecting to local mental health services where they can obtain further evaluation. No child is screened without parental consent. The results of the screen are confidential. Mental health screening can take place in any number of venues, including schools, clinics, doctors’ offices, juvenile justice facilities - in short, anywhere that a group of teens is present.”
