This audio news story from National Public Radio reports on the effectiveness of a universal mental health screening program for middle graders in Seattle. The only program of its kind in the U.S., the screening provides 6th graders with a “full emotional health check up,” which supporters of the program claim can lead to early intervention in cases where serious mental health problems are detected. With severe depression affecting 20 percent of all young people by the time they reach age eighteen, according to the Surgeon General, should mental health screenings be more widley adopted in the nation’s middle schools?
A version of this news article first appeared in the Around the Web blog.