Identifying symptoms of depression and anxiety in students in the school setting.
Early detection of mental health problems in school-age children offers the opportunity for prompt referral to treatment which is critical to their success in school. School nurses are in a key position to screen for mental health issues in the school setting. This article discusses how school nurses began a new initiative to use two validated screening tools, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item for detecting depression and the 5-item Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders for detecting anxiety in middle school/high school-aged children in selected urban schools. Students having positive screens were referred to the multidisciplinary school-based Student Assistance Program team for further evaluation and referral. These screens improved the identification and referral for treatment of children suffering from anxiety and/or depression by expediting the connection to services.
1Pittsburgh Board of Education, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Virginia L
VL
Allison
Donna G
DG
Nativio
Ann M
AM
Mitchell
Dianxu
D
Ren
Janet
J
Yuhasz
D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012572:School Health Services; D012573:School Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population
mental health screening in schools; pediatric anxiety screening; pediatric depression screening; pediatric mental health