Utilization of Professional Mental Health Services Related to Population-Level Screening for Anxiety, Depression, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Among Public High School Students

Abstract

This study examines results from three mental health screening measures in a cohort of adolescent public school students in seven public schools in Southeast [State removed for peer review] affiliated with the [name of study removed for blind review]. We estimated the odds of receiving professional mental health treatment in the previous year given results from different mental health screening batteries: the CES-D 10 battery for depression screening, the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), and the Primary Care Posttraumatic Stress Disorder screen (PC-PTSD). Overall, students with higher scores on screening instruments for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and combinations of screening instruments were more likely to have sought past-year professional mental health treatment than non-symptomatic youth. However, the proportion of students screening positive and receiving professional treatment was low, ranging from 11 to 16%. This study emphasizes the need for broader evaluation of population-based mental health screening among adolescents.

Emotional and Behavioral Health Needs in Elementary School Students in an Underserved Hispanic Community

“…Our study provides empirical evidence describing emotional and behavioral health needs in elementary school children in a largely Hispanic community from child and teacher perspectives. While recent research emphasizes that implementation of school-based mental health screening is an important approach to reducing mental health disparities for children and adolescents, the different perspectives on internalizing problems between children and teachers in our study suggest that school nurses should implement cross-informant screening including both children and teachers as well as parents (Nemeroff et al, 2008; Prochaska, Le, Baillargeon, & Temple, 2016).…”

Four-year trajectory of Korean youth mental health and impacts of school environment and school counselling: a observational study using national schools database

“…Furthermore, because the number of counselling sessions is a mixture of counselling in the school and by external experts, the effects of professional treatment should also be considered. School-based mental health services promote the involvement of students with emotional or behavioural problems in external treatment processes,9 10 37 thereby increasing the effectiveness of mental health policies for students 16 17. The results of this study indicate that school-level primary interventions and connecting to a community network are effective for improving students’ mental health.…”

“…To reduce emotional or behavioural problems, and improve the mental health of adolescents, many schools have implemented various school-based mental health interventions. These can proactively respond to students’ problems and can also connect at-risk students to necessary services 9 10. Previous studies have validated the effectiveness of school-based mental health programme 11.…”

Mental Health Help-Seeking in Adolescence: An Exploration of Variables Associated with Help-Seeking Intent in Schools

“…Additionally, the use of office discipline referrals fails to detect non-disruptive, internalizing symptoms and further minimizes the significance of internalizing problems and important need for early intervention (Splett et al, 2018). Moreover, even when schools use valid mental health screeners, these are often administered on a twice a year basis, leaving the possibility of missing symptoms or crises that arise between screenings entirely (Prochaska, Le, Baillargeon, & Temple, 2016;Severson, Walker, Hope-Doolittle, Kratochwill, & Gresham, 2007). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to extend the literature on school mental health practice by gaining an understanding about what variables affect students' willingness to seek support for internalizing problems in schools.…”