At the inner-city school-based health center (SBHC) where I interned in 2013-2014, we couldn’t always prevent tragedy in the lives of our students. Every week, some 250 students used our services, which ranged from medical services to counseling to snacks. From these encounters, I saw first-hand what data back up: a facility allowing students, teachers and mental health professionals to coordinate support in one place leads to better mental-health access for teens who need it most.
While mental health services in the US are generally inadequate, teens are especially ill-served by the existing gaps in the system. Suicide is the third leadingcause of death for Americans ages 10 to 24, with about 4,600 lives lost each year. According to a national study published in the Journal of JAMA Psychiatry in 2013, one in 25 teens attempt suicide and one in eight think about doing so; 80% of youth who attempt suicide and 90% of those who complete it have a history of a psychiatric or mental health disorder, including depression, substance abuse, conduct disorder, aggressive behavior patterns or anxiety disorders.
[For more of this story, written by Amy Tran, go to http://www.theguardian.com/com...s-help-mental-health]
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