Successful Treatment At Maricopa School Based Program

Despite the rise in teen depression the study which analyzed data from the national surveys on drug use and health reported that there really isn’t mental health treatment for adolescents and young adults but there is a growing number of young people who go un-treated or under-treated and for those who did get help, treatment tended to be really intense often involving specialized care or prescribed medication. According to the department of health and human resources more than 3 million adolescents aged 12-17 reported at least one major depressive episode in the past year and more than two million reported to have severe depression that messed up their daily functioning or in other words it affected their schedules.

Imagine living with a mental illness that affects your everyday life but has no physical aspects to it. Waging a war within your own head and not being able to control your own thoughts or feelings. Millions of adolescence throughout the United States are currently sick, living with a mental illness with no idea how to treat it, or even the idea they are sick. Mental Health services on campus may be the answer to treating the diseases many children are suffering from.

Adolescence is a critical time of development. During this period there are significant changes in brain development, emotions, cognition, behavior, and personal relationships. It is during this time that most major mental health disorders appear, many of which carry over into adulthood. Behavior patterns such as substance abuse also often develop during this time and may continue throughout adulthood. Many adolescents struggling with mental health issues begin to exhibit symptoms such as acting out at home or in school, showing a decreased interest in activities that they previously enjoyed, or bringing home poor grades. Others ultimately are charged with offenses ranging from status

Mental illnesses are very common in the United States, with one in five of adolescents having a diagnosed mental illness and in the last year less than half of these adolescents have received proper treatment. The most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression, can disrupt daily life and result in suicide, which is the third most frequent cause of death in teenagers (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Ten percent of adolescents did not have health insurance in 2013 and those who did, had a very limited amount of mental health care services provided to them (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). It has been proved that it is even less likely that adolescents who are poor, homeless, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender will receive the care that is necessary for their health and even life (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Mental disorders are not only an

Greenberg, Mark T., Weissberg, R., Utne-O'Brien, M., Zins, J., Fredericks, L., Resnik, H., & Elias, M. (2003). Enhancing school-based prevention and youth development through coordinated social, emotional and academic learning. American Psychologist, 58(6/7), 466-474.

Participants were 60 youths from inner-city schools (30 males and 30 females) aged 15 to 18 years. Standardised classifactions placed all participants at the same lower socioeconomic status level. Participants were referred by school personnel for special help, and had reported disciplinary or truancy problems, a history of aggressive or antisocial behavior, depression or substance abuse.

Studies on school-based interventions have identified programs as being effective when they are implemented by teachers, mental health professionals, and trained interventionists, however, there is little agreement on which leaders implement programs most effectively. One literature review revealed that of 49 school-based mental health interventions, teachers were involved in implementation 40.8% of the time and were the sole providers of the intervention 18.4% of the time. The majority of the more intensive, targeted interventions were provided health professionals (Franklin, Kim, Ryan, Kelly, & Montgomery, 2012).

Mental Health is not merely the absence of psychopathology, but the presence of sufficient levels of emotional, psychological, and social well-being (Keyes, 2002). Over the lasts 20 years, there has been a shift in understanding the epidemiological study of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders and their daily functioning. About one out of every ten youths is estimated to meet the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) criteria for a Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED), (Costello et al, 2005) defined as a mental health problem that has a drastic impact on a child’s ability to function socially, emotionally, and academically (Brauner and Stephens, 2006). Children who have difficulty paying attention, following directions, getting along with others, and controlling negative emotions of anger and distress do less well in school (McClelland et al., 2000). For many children, academic achievement in their first few years of schooling appears to be built on a firm foundation of children 's emotional and social skills (Raver, 2002).

Evans, D., Foa, E., Gur, R., Hendin, H., O'Brien, C., Seligman, M., & Walsh, B. (Eds.). (2005). Treating and preventing adolescent mental health disorders : What we know and what we don't know : A research agenda for improving the mental health of our youth. Oxford Medicine.

St. Louis City has taken an aggressive stance on preparing its youth to be healthy well-functioning future leaders. The City has collaborated with community organizations to address the issues that youth experience on a regular basis, i.e., bullying, suicidal ideation, abuse and neglect, poverty, LGBTQ biases, various levels of mental health conditions, homelessness, and various life-changing traumas. The St. Louis Mental Health Board (MHB) and the St. Louis Region System of Care (SOC) initiative contracted with Behavioral Health Network of Greater St. Louis (BHN) to implement the 2017 Youth Behavioral Health (BH) Community Needs Assessment for St. Louis City. The results identified the strengths and areas of opportunity that directly

The screening of teenagers in school may be beneficial because teachers are in a good position to pinpoint students who need help. Students of all ages spend upwards of six hours a day at school with their teachers, which, in many cases, is longer than a student may spend with his/her parents on any given weekday. This time in school is spent not only learning, but establishing relationships with their peers and teachers. Because teachers are able to get to know their students by spending so much time with them, it may be easier for a teacher to identify any changes in their personality or notice when a student is in distress. For these reasons, it is significantly more effective to connect teenagers to mental health services based out of their school and provide follow-up treatment services through school psychologists rather than having students and parents do so by themselves out in the community, where they are not guaranteed to go for follow-ups (“…Adolescent Screening”, 2011).

Across the United States of America there are approximately 20% of the children and adolescent population that have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The focus is on the adolescents, ages approximately from 10 to 19 years of age, and their struggles, strengths and the development of preventive and interventive measures to increase their functioning and development. Having a mental disorder at such a crucial stage of life development is challenging, but there are additional aspects that can provide this population support through treatment, while at the same time there are barriers. This population has its own set of strengths while having its own set of weaknesses and

Behavioral and emotional problems are common in the child and adolescent population and can negatively impact quality of life. It is estimated that 11-20% of children in the United States meet criteria for a behavioral disorder. Approximately half of the pediatric office visits in a primary setting involve emotional, behavioral, developmental, psychosocial, or educational concerns and 75% of children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders are seen in the primary care office. Approximately 50% of adults with behavioral health problems report that their disorders emerged in early adolescence.

Some (but not all) teens may go through adolescence experiencing serious psychological and behavioral problems (i.e. substance abuse, delinquency, and depression). These problems can have direct (i.e. being in contact with personal youth) or indirect (i.e. increased taxes for community services and raised anxiety about safety of neighborhoods) effects on troubled teens and those around them. The media often exaggerates the psychosocial problems of adolescents, which leads to the stereotype of adolescents being troublesome. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between normative, transitory problems that most adolescence face (e.g. self-doubt, broken hearts, etc.) and more serious psychosocial problems that few adolescents experience (e.g. drug abuse, depression, etc.). This can be done by distinguishing between occasional experimentation and ongoing patterns of troublesome behavior.

Children that displays mental health needs often times enters a juvenile justice system that is usually unequipped to aid in their care. Between 65% and 70% of the two million children and adolescents arrested each year in the United States, have mental health disorders, and approximately one in four suffers from a mental illness so severe it impairs his or her ability to function as a young person and grow into a responsible adult. (NCSL.org) In this article, “Adolescent Offenders with Mental Disorders,” written by Thomas Grisso have a much bolder focus than Ruddell and Thomas which includes but is not limited to, the risk of aggression and specific disorders, the setting of the juveniles, epidemiologic study of mental disorder and delinquency, the community response and the limits of physical treatment. Mental health has become a significant issue when dealing with juveniles, as many go undiagnosed. Prior diagnosis would make this transition from the streets to incarceration a little smoother if the preexisting conditions were known. Juvenile mental disorders without the proper treatment and aftercare, is what leads to delinquency and ultimately boisterous adult crimes.