The goal of mental health checkups is to identify youth at risk for serious mental illness and suicide.

Screening accurately identifies youth with serious mental health problems and the known risk factors for suicide.

• Research has shown that school-based health centers that use screening tools are much better able to identify students with mental health problems than those that do not employ mental health screening.¹
• The scientific evidence supporting mental health screening led a President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to place a high priority on the implementation of voluntary screening programs.²
• A study of TeenScreen’s implementation in a school setting found that early detection of risk factors through screening can result in earlier treatment and the avoidance of a suicidal crisis.³
  
  

Mental health screening of youth is safe.

• Research has shown that screening and directly asking youth if they are thinking about suicide or have made a prior suicide attempt does not cause them to start thinking about suicide, increase suicidal ideation, or create distress.⁴

There is widespread support for mental health screening for youth.

• Voluntary mental health screening for youth is recommended by the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.
• The U.S. Surgeon General highlighted screening as an effective method of youth suicide prevention.⁵
• Mental health screening has been endorsed by over thirty national health, mental health and education organizations.

References

¹ Levitt, J., WonPat-Borja, A., Buffered, S., & Jensen, P. (2004). Implementing evidence-based assessment strategies in schools. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, HI.

² President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. (2003). Achieving the promise: Transforming mental health care in America. Final report. Rockville, MD: DHHS Pub. No. SMA-03-3832.

³ Brown, M. M., & Goldstein Grumet, J. (2009). School-based suicide prevention with African American youth in an urban setting. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 40(2), 111-117.

⁵ Gould, M. S., Marrocco, F. A., Kleinman, M., Thomas, J. G., Mostkoff, K., Cote, J., et al. (2005). Evaluating iatrogenic risk of youth suicide screening programs: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 293(13), 1635-1643.