Corrected: Screening, Schools, and Children's Mental Health

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October 2019

Newsletter of the Center for Educational Improvement

Screening, Schools, and Children's Mental Health

Dear Educators,

Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week. Organizations, schools, and governments around the world made mental health a conversation topic in order to reduce stigma and encourage those who need mental health services to seek help. We think mental health, especially in schools, is an important topic for everyday conversation. In our schools, that conversation lately has often zeroed in on these questions, “Should schools be screening students for mental health issues? And, if so, how? Which assessments should we use? Should we use targeted or universal screeners?”

We explore these questions and more in this month’s newsletter.

Part I: The Benefits and Cautions of Universal Mental Health Screening

By Dana Asby, CEI Director of Innovation & Research Support

Universal screening has improved the physical outcomes for millions of children who get routine dental and eye exams at their school buildings each year. Screening for mental health issues in schools has become a topic of discussion for many district leaders. Will the benefits of identifying students most at-risk of physical health problems translate when those difficulties are in the mental health realm? The answer is complicated. Read more .

Part II: School Mental Health Screening—Trauma-Informed Recommendations

By Dana Asby, CEI Director of Innovation & Research Support

Is the 17% rise in anxiety disorder diagnoses among American youth (Child Mind Institute, 2018) due to an increase in teens’ rate of anxiety or because more schools, physicians, and other community institutions have increasingly begun to screen for mental illnesses? It’s difficult to discern whether people are feeling more clinically anxious or we’re just better at noticing and diagnosing it. Regardless, schools are taking notice of the numbers and how mental health diagnoses impact their students, in positive and negative ways. Understanding the mental health of their students helps school leaders know which students need individual attention and which issues are pervasive enough to require a universal healing practice.

The Complexity of Screen Time: Effects on Anxiety and Depression

By Didi Dunin and Will Foley, CEI Interns

Are teens spending too much time with their technologies? According to a Pew Research Center report, 95% of teens can easily access a smartphone; 45% are online “almost constantly” (Anderson, 2018).

Americans spend as much as 12 hours in front of TV, phone, and computer screens each day (Fischer, 2019). Increased screen time, specifically time spent on social media, is correlated with rising rates of anxiety and depression, especially in girls (Riehm et. al, 2019). However, research suggests that this correlation might be mediated by other factors. Read more .

Special Invitation to New England Educators

Childhood-Trauma Learning Collaborative (C-TLC)

Webinar Series

Are you/your colleagues looking for mental health resources to better support your students?

Join us for a series of online events designed to strengthen mental health supports that address the needs of children who have experienced/are at risk of experiencing significant trauma.

Watch archived webinars on school mental health issues.

Poverty, Brain Development, and Early Interventions with Dr. Kimberly Noble

Thursday, November 7 at 4 p.m.

2020 webinar topics will include:

Psychosocial Deprivation & Neurocognitive Functioning
Secondary Implementation of Mindfulness Practices
Teen Suicide
Cultural Competence

Featured C-TLC Fellow: Transforming a School with Jim O’Rourke, Principal, Hillsboro-Deering High School

By Will Foley, CEI Intern

When Principal O’Rourke took charge of Hillsboro-Deering High School in New Hampshire, he saw the inherent potential of the community he was joining. The school cycled through five principals over the course of five years. A talented staff was demotivated, students weren’t proud, and test scores were low. But Jim saw something else. He saw excellent teaching, an active student body, and a community ready to support the school. Jim’s first priority was total community engagement. “We all wanted the same thing: to do better,” he says. Hillsboro-Deering has done just that. Read more .

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reflections: The State of School Mental Health—Courageous Conversations and Healing Practices

Best Practices in School Mental Health: Join us for a special session on Monday, October 28, 2:00-3:30 p.m. at The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.

Featured speaker, Tim Marshall, LCSW , Director of Community-Based Mental Health at Connecticut Department of Children and Families, will discuss best practices in assisting children, youth, and their families with a range of mental health, psychiatric, and substance use disorders. This session will also highlight how state officials and educators are using healing practices to address trauma and the effects of mental illness. Read more.

Review our Meeting FAQs

New Publication:

Visioning Onward

Available February 2020

Preorder for a 20% discount

This book provides school leaders with a practical guide for creating a vision that can transform any and all schools into a 21st century learning environment. ISBN: 9781071800157.