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Providing Care for Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders

For most teens, adolescence is a time of physical, mental, emotional, and social change. Teens experience hormonal changes as puberty begins. They begin to develop a unique self-image and establish their independence, making their own choices about friends, activities, and school. However, some teens also deal with mental health problems that interfere with their normal development and daily life. Mental health disorders can be mild, or severe, and range in duration. The National Institute of Mental Health reports:

• Research studies have reported that up to about 5 percent of children and up to 8 percent of adolescents in the US suffer from depression.
• Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems that occur in children and adolescents.
• Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents. It affects an estimated 4.1 percent of youths ages 9 to 17.
• Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are common among adolescent and young women in the US.

If they receive treatment, most teens with mental health disorders can live normal and healthy lives. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer than 20 percent who need mental health services, receive them. Schools can play a vital role in creating safe environments and providing care to students with mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders. In addition to providing access to school counselors and psychologists, schools can utilize mental health resources to provide care for students with mental health disorders. The Center for Mental Health Services lists the following resources:

• Children's and Adolescents' Mental Health
  Like adults, children and adolescents can have mental health disorders that interfere with the way they think, feel, and act. Mental health influences the ways individuals look at themselves, their lives, and others in their lives. Like physical health, mental health is important at every stage of life.
• Child, Adolescent and Family Branch
  The Child, Adolescent, and Family Branch of the Federal Center for Mental Health Services promotes and ensures that the mental health needs of children and their families are met within the context of community-based systems of care. Systems of care are developed on the premise that the mental health needs of children, adolescents, and their families can be met within their home, school, and community environments.
• Caring for Every Child's Mental Health
  Systems of Care, the Caring for Every Child's Mental Health communications campaign is a public information and education program to:
  • Increase public awareness about the importance of protecting and nurturing the mental health of young people.
  • Foster recognition that many children have mental health problems that are real, painful, and sometimes severe.
  • Encourage caregivers to seek early, appropriate treatment and services.
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
  The mission of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) is to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families and communities throughout the United States. This site includes an article on school planning for disasters.
• Youth Violence Prevention
  The CMHS initiative on school violence focuses on the collective involvement of families, communities, and schools to build resiliency to disruptive behavior disorders.
• Make Time to Listen, Take Time to Talk
  The campaign is part of the CMHS School Violence Prevention Initiative and is designed to provide practical guidance to parents and caregivers about "how to" create time to listen and take time to talk with their children.
• Listening Dads Are Champs
  Children whose fathers are highly involved with them in a positive way do better in school, demonstrate better psychological well-being and lower levels of delinquency, and ultimately attain higher levels of education and economic self-sufficiency.
• Family Guide To Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy and Drug Free
  A public education Web site, developed to support the efforts of parents and other caring adults to promote mental health and prevent the use of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs among 7- to 18-year-olds.
• Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General
  This Surgeon General's report seeks to focus on action steps that all Americans can take to help address the problem, and continue to build a legacy of health and safety for our young people and the Nation as a whole.
• Publications on Children and Families
  Free information from the Center for Mental Health Services about children and families.