1 in 5 Youth Have a Mental Health Condition, What Schools Can Do
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, “one in five youth have a mental health condition, with half of mental health conditions developing by age 14.” Continuing, “the earlier a young person can access mental health care, the more effective it can be. Early treatment can help keep youth in school and on track to achieving their life goals. But, far too often, there are long delays between when a young person first experiences symptoms and when they get help.”
There is significant room for improvement in the percentage of youth who can access treatment for the common occurrence of mental illness, when as NAMI reports, “less than half of youth with mental health conditions received any kind of treatment in the past year.”
Since half of mental health conditions that will develop, develop by age 14, or when youth are still in the education system, NAMI concludes that, “schools provide a unique opportunity to identify and treat mental health conditions by serving students where they already are.”
How’s Today meets this need by creating a cost-effective digital solution that adapts to any school, college or university’s existing wellness program. A group of client dedicated mental health, educational and administrative professionals develop questions to survey students with once or twice a year, forwarding answers to a guidance center and relevant staff as a report of student sentiment, feedback, possible interventions to make and recommendations.
How’s Today can refer students to external mental health services, like therapy or support groups and a school, college or university’s guidance center can reach out to students who may need assistance. Questions are asked to students on a batched-rolling basis so feedback is sent throughout a school year.
How’s Today helps improve the number of students who are able to access mental healthcare by supplementing an existing wellness center or counselor’s work, cost-effectively. How’s Today alerts them as who to reach out to by proactively surveying students, offers advice based on school-wide feedback & learnings from client-dedicated mental health, educational and administrative professionals, and helps refer to external mental health services as needed.
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