Remarks by
A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed.
Director
Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools National Conference
Washington, DC
August 15, 2005
PowerPoint version
Attached is the text prepared for delivery; however, some material may have been added or omitted at the time of delivery.
[SLIDE 1. Title slide]
John F. Kennedy called children “ the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” Our Nation, however, may be squandering this valuable resource by failing to ensure that every child can achieve his or her potential. . . in school and in life. Too many children with or at risk of behavioral and emotional disorders face uncertain futures.
[SLIDE 2. America’s children]
More than 80 million children under age 19 now are growing up in the United States. At any given time, 20 percent of them will have a diagnosable behavioral disorder. Nearly 10 percent will have a serious emotional disturbance.
[SLIDE 3. Classroom]
To get a better grasp of the numbers, picture a typical classroom of 30 children. [CLICK] Six of the students may have identifiable mental health needs; [CLICK] three of the six may have a serious condition such as depression.
If left undiagnosed and untreated, childhood disorders can result in serious long-term consequences . . . for the child, the family, and our communities. Known consequences include substance abuse, delinquency, social isolation, and school failure. At the extreme, childhood disorders can lead to suicide.
I’ve been asked to speak about suicide as a serious problem confronting school systems. Let me begin with a story told by Julie Garreau to a Senate subcommittee on Indian affairs. Ms. Garreau is the executive director of the Cheyenne River Youth Project. Her project provides after-school activities for young children on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation and is in the process of building the only after-school center for its teens.
This is an excerpt from Ms. Garreau’s testimony. She reported:
“With class sizes averaging approximately 70, we [recently] have lost 17 teens to suicide. Some of these suicides were young men who had made a suicide pact with one another. They drew numbers and decided to hang themselves in that order. One by one, their families found these boys, often hanging in their own homes, as their ‘number’ came up.”
This is youth suicide—tragic. . . shocking. . . incomprehensible. Angry, guilty, and bewildered, we find ourselves asking “Why are these children giving up on themselves?” “What signs did we miss?” “What can we do to prevent this tragedy from happening again?”
In 2001, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 10 to 19 years old. In that year, nearly 19,000 children took their own lives.
The number of youths who are at risk is far greater. Consider the findings from a survey conducted in 1999 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[SLIDE 4. Suicide risk]
Almost 20 percent of high school students seriously had considered attempting suicide. More than 14 percent had made plans to attempt suicide. More than 9 percent had attempted suicide during the preceding year. We’re talking about millions of school-aged children who are losing hope in themselves and their future.
There are differences by gender. Boys commit suicide more than four times as often as girls. Girls, however, report higher rates of depression and attempt suicide more often.
[SLIDE 5. Suicide statistics]
Cultural variations in youth suicide also exist. White males commit the majority, or 61 percent, of suicides. American Indian males have the highest rate of suicide. African American males show the most rapid increase in the rate of suicide. Suicide really knows no bounds. It strikes children of all races and cultures and crosses all gender and economic lines.
But why do our children attempt suicide? What factors place children at risk, and what we can do to help protect them? Research offers some answers to our questions.
[SLIDE 6. Risk factors]
Suicide appears to result from a combination of risk factors in the absence of protective factors. A primary risk factor is a mental disorder or a co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorder. An estimated 90 percent of young people who complete suicide have a diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder or both. In addition, aggressive, disruptive, and impulsive behaviors are common in both girls and boys who complete suicide.
[SLIDE 7. Protective factors]
Protective factors obviously include access to effective and appropriate mental health care and support. Other protective factors include effective skills for solving problems and for resolving conflicts and controlling impulsive behaviors. The important point about these other factors is that they represent learnable skills. We can teach children resilience in dealing with the challenges that life presents.
One promising strategy to promote mental health and to prevent suicide is to reduce early risk factors for depression, substance abuse, and aggressive behaviors. This strategy is the foundation of collaborative programs such as SAMHSA’s Safe Schools/Healthy Students and OSDFS’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
SAMHSA also is tackling suicide prevention head-on through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and through grant programs such as the one funded by the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act of 2004.
The Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act is our Nation’s first youth suicide prevention act. A majority of the funds it authorizes are dedicated to statewide youth suicide early intervention and prevention strategies. The act was named in memory of Senator Gordon Smith’s son who committed suicide. Although this groundbreaking act focuses on college-aged students, its basic tenets apply to all school-aged children. The act maintains that—
(1) Students have a critical need for mental and behavioral health services, and
(2) A student’s mental and behavioral health problems can significantly undermine academic achievement.
College is too late for schools to begin promoting and protecting the mental health of our children! To be effective, we must begin as early as possible. Children are driven by their emotional lives from a very early age. Has anyone in the audience had to steer a toddler away from the candy rack at the grocery store? You have experienced the sheer depth and intensity of a young child’s emotions, . . . even as the child dealt with one of life’s more mundane lessons in nutrition.
Children are born with a genetic map that is their foundation for learning. However, the direction they take in life—the way in which they see themselves and others and how they respond to life’s challenges—is guided by their everyday learning experiences, beginning at birth.
The landmark study entitled Neurons to Neighborhoods confirmed earlier research about the importance of a child’s first 3 years of life.
[SLIDE 8. Book quote]
The study also made this key point: “The timing of early experiences matter, but more often than not, the developing child remains vulnerable to risks and open to protective factors throughout the early years of life and into adulthood.” Different ages and different stages in a child’s development open up whole new worlds of possibility for growth, experiences, and change. Therefore, we have a continuous opportunity to promote the healthy mental development of children throughout their school years.
One expanding field of research and initial practice related to the healthy mental development of children is social and emotional learning.
[SLIDE 9. Social/emotional learning definition]
Social and emotional learning is a process through which a child acquires:
“The skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively .”
These are the skills that ensure a child’s fullest possible life in his or her community. That community can be a family, a school, or a workplace—all of the gradually expanding environments that mark a child’s successful passage into adulthood.
Many school systems across the country have been adopting programs related to social and emotional learning. The State of Illinois is a leader in this area. Last December, the Illinois State Board of Education adopted social and emotional learning standards as part of the core curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12. These standards are the outgrowth of the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003. Similar to the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, this act recognizes that the social, emotional, and mental health status of children critically affects their ability to learn.
The State of Illinois has charted a path for others to follow. As parents, teachers, and community members, we have a responsibility to understand mental health and how it affects the overall health and development of children, including their academic development. In addition, we must become more aware of how the emotional lives of children reflect their mental health status.
Consider the following behaviors. A child feels unloved, pessimistic, or even hopeless about the future. She loses interest in activities that used to please her. She often is irritable, and her irritability may lead to aggressive behavior. She is indecisive, has problems concentrating, and may lack energy or motivation. A child with these symptoms may not be “going through a phase” or “acting out”! Instead, the child may be clinically depressed. Depression can seriously undermine the ability of children to respond positively to any environment, whether that environment is their home, a school, a juvenile detention center, or any other setting in which children find themselves.
Just last month, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) released its National Comorbidity Survey Replication. This survey is an eye-opening study with respect to the incredible prevalence of mental illnesses, the early age of onset, and the tragically long delay before most individuals seek treatment.
Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, made this observation about the report’s significance. He declared, “There are many important messages from this report, but perhaps none as important as the recognition that mental disorders are the chronic disorders of young people in the United States.”
The study found that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness began by age 14; three-quarters of illnesses began by age 24. The study also documented long delays between the onset of a disorder and the first treatment. The pattern appears to be that the earlier in life a disorder begins, the slower the individual is to seek therapy and the more persistent the illness.
We really must get smarter, act faster, and be stronger advocates when it comes to the mental health status of children. We need to arm our children with protective and resiliency factors to promote mental health and to prevent illnesses.
Research already has provided us with several evidence-based practices for various school-aged groups. For example, three SAMHSA grantee districts in Washington County, Oregon, are using the First Steps to Success program in their elementary schools. Esperanza Para La Familia, a mental health program in Kansas City, Missouri, has introduced the PATHS program to at-risk Latino high school students. PATHS is an acronym for Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies.
Both of these evidence-based programs advocate a close working relationship with parents and guardians. Parents are the decisionmakers when it comes to choices that concern their children. Children, however, don’t come with instruction manuals. Every parent, at some time, has wished for guidance. The role of educators . . . or juvenile justice staff . . . or others whose work involves children is to help parents understand when a mental health assessment could benefit a child. When the need exists, early intervention can interrupt the course of many childhood disorders and often can reduce or eliminate their long-term consequences.
The recent Red Lake school shooting and suicide made tragically clear why the mental health of every child is a concern for every person in a community. The well-being of children affects our well-being. Their hopes and expectations for tomorrow affect how they respond to the challenges of today. It is our responsibility to help each and every child maintain hope in themselves and the future. We can do this by ensuring that all children have every opportunity to reach their full potential, in school and in life. May the information we share at this meeting shed greater light on how we can collaboratively—and respectfully—protect and promote the mental health of our children.
[SLIDE 10. The end]
Children are our greatest natural resource . . . but we are their future. Thank you.
###
|
