KING COUNTY, WA - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded Public Health - Seattle & King County a $220,621 grant in order to improve and expand mental health service for youth. The grant will fund on-site psychiatric evaluation and consultation over the next three years in the Reaching for Excellence program in seven Seattle school-based teen health centers.
"Our adolescents are faced with numerous challenges and pressures, and these improved teen health services will help them to navigate their road to success," said King County Executive Ron Sims.
"By having healthy bodies and healthy minds, our youth will be primed for academic success," said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.
Public Health's Youth Health Services collaborates with local health care providers and public schools to administer 11 school-based and two school-linked health centers in Seattle and King County and provides youth with medical and mental health screening and treatment. The health centers enrolled over 9,500 adolescents in Seattle and King County during the 2000-2001 school year.
Mental health problems on the rise
"Recent studies in our region have found that mental health issues are an increasing problem among youth, and now we'll be better able to support children so they may live healthy and productive lives," said Dr. Alonzo Plough, Director of Public Health - Seattle & King County.
According to a recent Kids Count report from the University of Washington, mental health problems have surpassed injuries as the single most common reason for child hospitalizations among Washington children 5 to 19 years old.
Youth Health Service found that during the 2000-2001 school year mental health visits accounted for 23% of the total visits to teen health centers in Seattle high schools and 55% percent of the total visits in middle schools. Furthermore, the 1999 Seattle Teen Health Survey, conducted by Seattle Public Schools, yielded concerning data regarding suicide and depression:
- 23% of middle school students said they seriously considered suicide in the past year
- 20% of high school students said they seriously considered suicide in the past year
- 29% of high school students reported having depressed feelings for more than two weeks in the past year
Public Health will partner with the University of Washington's Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine to provide a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow to work with teen health centers. The psychiatrist will evaluate students with specific psychiatric needs and provide training and consultation to clinic staff. Through increasing staff access to psychiatric expertise and professional development, the Reaching for Excellence program will benefit almost 1,200 young people each year.
Reaching for Excellence was one of 15 projects, among a field of 117 applicants, which awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Caring for Kids grant.
"School-based centers have been critical providers of health services for young people, particularly those who are uninsured," said Julia Graham Lear, Ph.D., program director of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Caring for Kids. "This program will expand the capacity of the funded centers to address critical problems and help other centers learn more about organizing and financing mental health services in schools."
For more information about Public Health's Youth Health Services, please visit: www.kingcounty.gov/health/yhs
For more information about the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, please visit: www.rwjf.org
Providing effective and innovative health and disease prevention services for over 1.8 million residents and visitors of King County, Public Health – Seattle & King County works for safer and healthier communities for everyone, every day. |
