The Case for Universal Mental Health Screening
At mdlogix, we believe any kind of school-based mental health support is a step in the right direction, but we are strong proponents of screening entire student populations (i.e. universal screening) for a variety of risk factors. When we talk to staff who have adopted this intervention at their schools, we hear the same kinds of stories. BH-Works is helping identify kids struggling with serious issues that could have remained undetected – issues like current suicidal thinking, severe depression, and traumatic stress.
Most schools provide some sort of mental health screening and support to students with indicated problems (when they’ve been referred to clinical staff by a teacher, parent, counselor, or coach), but in recent years we’ve seen more districts willing to extend this to support to all students. When we know teenagers are statistically more likely to be suffering from depression or anxiety than scoliosis or high blood pressure, why wouldn’t we provide regular mental health screening to all students?
To learn more, listen to staff and parents talk about BH-Works and how the web-based tool has helped Dover Area 7th and 9th graders.