Mental health checkups are safe and effective and can be administered in a doctor’s office, at school, and in other youth-serving settings using a brief, evidence-based questionnaire. These questionnaires take 5 to 10 minutes to complete and ask teens about common issues in their lives. Like hearing and vision screenings, mental health checkups identify potential problems that can be confirmed by further evaluation from a health professional.

Mental health checkups are especially valuable because many mental health problems are difficult to detect. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that 11 percent of our nation’s youth suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder that causes impairment. Yet, only 20 percent of these youth are identified and receive mental health services.

The good news is that most teens who receive a mental health checkup are fine or only experiencing typical teenage problems that do not require treatment. For some, however, checkups detect the signs of mental illness, enabling teens and their families to promptly access professional services that can improve their prognosis for recovery and, in some cases, save their lives.