Substance Abuse Linked with Mental Health Issues and How Screenings Can Help


The picture above shows what an online mental health screening test may look like and how easy it is to access even online

 

Many students all over the United States suffer from mental health issues, and many of them continue to go unnoticed. Most of these kids will turn to the use of substances, which can mean that friends of teenagers could be using substances. Not only that, but parents of kids can risk their kids being exposed to these usages of substances. Now think about sending kids to school, where substance usage goes under the radar because the schools don't test for possible mental health issues. Mental health screenings in schools would help catch mental health issues and prevent substance use.


There are times when schools are sued because they tried to save students' lives by performing mental health tests. Coming from the National Library of Medicine, an Indiana school is being sued by parents who didn’t give rights to do a depression screening. This makes schools more and more worried about trying to help and diagnose students with mental health issues because they risk a lawsuit. With fewer schools wanting to diagnose it leads to an increase in unknown mental health issues. 

Right around 45% of college students have at least one mental health issue that is unknown. To put that in perspective, if you have 3 friends 1 of them is guaranteed to have a mental health issue that either they don’t know about, or someone else doesn’t know about. Now, if we moved to high schools, it’s only 40% that report feeling some type of sadness, or even feeling hopeless, and 1 in 10 reported having attempted suicide, according to the CDC.


To build on top of this Child Youth Care Forum states that 90% of people who died by suicide had a diagnosable mental health issue, but just weren't diagnosed. While suicide is the most severe result of having a mental health issue, it cannot be ruled out. Inputting any type of professional help or screenings to possibly lower this number could help. While screening or talking to professionals, people can get help before it reaches suicide or even substance abuse.


These students often turn to some type of addictive substance to try to make it past or ignore the feelings that they have. The Advances in Psychiatry & Neurology state that one quarter of teens from 15-19 turn to drinking to escape the pain they are suffering. Out of the 40% that suffer from mental health issues, over half of them turn to drinking as a source of substance, but that leaves the rest left with something that could be far worse than drinking.


In conclusion, schools need to continue and increase the use of mental health screening to prevent the use of substances, either drinking or more dangerous ones. There are a large number of students currently reported to be suffering from a mental health issue, and an even larger number that isn’t reported. No one should be suing schools for performing a mental health screening test to attempt to save students. Mental health issues and substance issues should be monitored in schools to see what schools need to change to create a healthier environment.

 

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