Although about one in five adolescents has a mental-health disorder, 60 percent to 90 percent of them don’t ask for or receive treatment, a research brief from the nonprofit Child Trends says. And schools are often the first to identify the mental-health needs of adolescents.
Some of the barriers to treatment are missed opportunities by schools, parents, and medical providers to prevent and identify mental-health disorders; poor coordination of services between schools, primary care providers, and social service systems; and the stigma associated with mental health disorders, the brief says.
