FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 18, 2011

NEW YORK – The TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University is offering new training and development resources for its Schools and Communities Programs online for the first time. Launched nearly 10 years ago, TeenScreen Schools and Communities currently has approximately 600 screening sites in 38 states, and putting the free, evidence-based materials online should make it even easier for new sites to be established nationwide.

This free online guide helps schools and youth-centered community settings establish mental health screening programs for adolescents in middle and high schools. The new web-based program is simple to navigate and use, integrated with lively and informative video tutorials, fully customizable, hands-on and engaging.

Adolescence is an ideal time for the identification of mental illness. Research from the National Institute of Mental Health shows that half of all mental disorders start by age 14. Early identification and intervention can significantly reduce the long-term effects of psychiatric illness.

“Many teens who have taken the TeenScreen questionnaire report that no one had asked them questions about their mental health,” said Laurie Flynn, executive director of TeenScreen. “TeenScreen does.”

“Through Teen Screen’s free, online training and implementation materials, more local schools and communities now have a readily accessible vehicle for organizing mental health providers, counselors and others to identify at-risk teens,” said Ms. Flynn.

Jennifer O’Hare, LISW, a guidance social worker and TeenScreen coordinator at West Davenport High School in Davenport, Iowa, compares the need for TeenScreen with that of the recent state-required screenings done by dental hygienists at her school. “There are teens that struggle with depression or anxiety silently, without the help they need,” she said. “This very effective program allows us to reach these students and to offer them and their parents appropriate support.”

“If you don’t ask, you’re not going to get an answer,” said a 15-year-old student who participated in a TeenScreen screening at an Illinois high school. Another student at a high school in Iowa echoed this comment: “I think it’s good that they’re asking questions like this to kids, because some kids won’t ask for help.”

The TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University is a non-profit public health initiative and national policy and resource center devoted to increasing youth access to regular mental health checkups. The TeenScreen National Center is affiliated with the Columbia University Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The National Center provides free tools for physicians and school professionals and supports screening efforts at more than 1,325 communities in 45 states through its TeenScreen Primary Care and TeenScreen Schools and Communities programs. www.teenscreen.org.

For more information:
Elizabeth Streich
streich@childpsych.columbia.edu
212-265-3174