Taking mental health to school

The unmet need of students with untreated mental health and substance abuse problems and disorders and the long-term costs to the individual students and society make school-based intervention imperative. [...] DEFINING MENTAL HEALTH In this report, we define mental health, mental health problems and mental illness in a manner similar to that reported in the US Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health (1999) which adopts a broad public health approach to mental health and mental illness including addiction and substance abuse. [...] Taking mental health to school THE IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH The importance of addressing mental health difficulties in a school-based setting has been widely acknowledged by policy makers, researchers and educators, not only because of the importance of facilitating the early identification of difficulties when they first emerge but also because of the importance of mental health i [...] The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003), and recently released report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2009), among others, have emphasized the importance of mental health in both learning and development and have recommended improved and expanded school-based mental health services (Brener et al, 2007). [...] The purpose of this section is to summarize the growing number of reports, review papers, meta-analyses and systematic reviews of the evidence-base supporting the benefit of mental health and substance abuse services in schools.