Senate Mental Health Chairman Demands That NYS Schools Train Staff To Detect Teen Depression

New York State Senator Thomas P. Morahan, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities announced that he was very alarmed by results from a recent national survey conducted by the federal government, which indicated that 9.0 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (an estimated 2.2 million adolescents) experienced one major depressive episode in 2004.

According to the study, less than half (40.3 percent) of young people in the nation received treatment for depression. "Treatment for depression," as defined by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, "is seeing or talking to a medical doctor or other health professional or taking prescription medication for depression."

Almost 23,000 young people in the United States aged 12 to 17 were surveyed through face-to-face interviews. The Senator indicated that the findings demonstrate that the state’s public education agencies need to be more involved; that they were "overlooking this growing problem." He indicated that in the current session of the legislature, he will be urging that educators ‘step up to the plate’ by learning how to identify the symptoms of depression in their students.

"In good conscience, the Legislature must demand that the public education system, which requires young people to attend school for at least six hours each day, require educators and other key personnel receive training on how to detect symptoms of depression from their students. Once identified, the schools should contact parents with the goal of a referral to appropriate care givers. This federal survey clearly serves a wake-up call to parents, educators and those concerned about a deterioration in the mental health of our young people," said the Senator.

The Data from National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

Prevalence of Major Depressive Episodes

In 2004, an estimated 2.2 million youths aged 12 to 17 had at least one MDE during the past year.

The lifetime prevalence of MDE was 14.0 percent among persons aged 12 to 17; The rate among youths aged 12 to 17 was 9.0 percent.

The past year prevalence of MDE was higher among females than among males (10.6 vs. 5.5 percent) Rates of lifetime and past year MDE were higher for females than males.

Among racial/ethnic groups, the past year prevalence of MDE was highest among persons reporting two or more races (16.6 percent). Rates of MDE were below 10 percent among whites (8.5 percent), American Indians or Alaska Natives (8.0 percent), blacks (7.2 percent), Hispanics (6.8 percent), and Asians (5.4 percent).

The rate of MDE was highest among persons with fair or poor health (13.6 percent) and lowest among those with excellent health (5.1 percent). The rate was 7.6 percent among those with very good health and 9.3 percent among those with good health.

Senator Morahan recently secured a state grant to fund a professional development workshop for educators, in cooperation with the NYS Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, which will deal with detecting and treating eating disorders, an illness on the rise amongst adolescents. That project is scheduled for February 10, 2006 at Rockland BOCES.

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