February 17 Briefing on Introduction of Mental Health in Schools Act
News , Legislative , Advocacy Add commentsOn Thursday, February 17, Rep. Grace F. Napolitano and a panel of mental health advocates and experts, including LA Laker Ron Artest and champion boxer Mia St. John, will examine the Mental Health in Schools Act, a bill authored by Napolitano to allocate federal grant funding for mental health services in schools. One in five children and adolescents in the United States currently suffers from a mental illness, and most will have shown their first symptoms by age 14. Professional treatment can prevent depression, crime, imprisonment and suicide later in life, but lack of support for mental health services has left many youth without help. By putting more licensed professionals on-site and in the schools, the Mental Health in Schools Act will help detect mental illness early and assist youth before their problems grow worse. The briefing will examine the potential effect of the Mental Health in Schools Act and hear from advocates who have personally been affected by mental health programs in their own lives.
More information available at www.napolitano.house.gov/mhsa.shtml
Apr 20, 2011 at 4:03 PM Groups at school, meant to help kids with stress and psychological problems can backfire. Maybe they need more oversight or to be run by qualified mental health providers. When my depressed and alienated son joined a group for kids with divorce (I think that was the title), he met other kids in trouble and identified/aligned with them only to get introduced to drugs and the start of 12 years of progressive drug addiction. He did essentially along with several others of the group that I know of also dropped out of school. These kids need individualized treatment and evaluation, and encouragement to join positive groups within the school not be in a group which essentially confirms to them that they belong to the "losers."