Catholic High helps teens spot risks of emotional trouble
Screening for suicide and depression risks helps Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock bring help to students who need it, while opening dialogue with all students.
Published: August 19, 2006
By Tara Little Associate Editor
Last spring, Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock was one of two Arkansas high schools chosen by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock to administer TeenScreen, a program designed to identify teenagers who might be suffering from depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and those at risk for suicide. Also chosen was Warren High School.
Brother Richard Sanker, CFP, guidance counselor for CHS, said he requested that his school be considered for TeenScreen last fall when he attended a meeting about the program with other school counselors.
The all-boys school has had students commit suicide in the past, most recently in 2004.
Catholic High has brought in UAMS counselors through the years to do crisis counseling and give presentations about teenage depression to students and faculty, Brother Richard said.
"We were doing what we are called to do here at Catholic and that is to help our students in any way that we can, especially in this very crucial way," he said of TeenScreen.
According to teenscreen.org, the goal of the program, created by Columbia University, is to make voluntary mental-health checkups available for all American teens. TeenScreen also educates and assists communities in developing their own screening programs.
When the state Legislature passed Act 1757 of 2005, creating the Arkansas Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force, funding was also made available to bring TeenScreen to Arkansas.
Licensed social workers from UAMS administered TeenScreen to ninth-grade CHS students March 14-16. The screening was free to students and voluntary; both parents and students had to give written consent to participate.
Brother Richard said letters explaining the program along with consent forms were mailed to parents with the promise of strict confidentiality. Only UAMS staff members who administered the screening had access to individual results.
Of the 170 CHS freshman, 71 participated. The screening took place during homeroom classes. It involved a multiple-choice questionnaire with 14 main questions and several sub-questions and took about 10 minutes to complete, Brother Richard said.
Ashley Hurst, program manager for young adults' programs at UAMS, was the site coordinator for the CHS screening.
Hurst said after each student completed the questionnaire, a UAMS staff member scored it and gave it to one of four social workers that were on hand to meet with each student privately to discuss results.
Hurst said every student who completed the questionnaire met with a social worker, even if no problems were found, to prevent others from figuring out if a student tested positive on the screening.
Hurst said TeenScreen does not allow copies of the questionnaire to be distributed for fear that nonprofessionals would administer the screening and misinterpret results.
Questions asked students about their general health, relationships, if they had problems at school, symptoms of depression or other emotional problems, used drugs and alcohol and ultimately if they ever considered suicide, Brother Richard said.
If an answer was yes, several related sub-questions followed to gain additional information.
Hurst said no diagnosis was made based on the screening. TeenScreen is designed to raise awareness of a possible problem. If a student tested positive, UAMS shared a summary of the results with his parents and then recommended further evaluation by a mental health professional.
"We aren't recommending that anybody get therapy or medication based on one interview," Hurst said. "If they say 'yes' to anything we're going to ask them about it."
Students found to be in immediate danger of hurting themselves or others, would have been sent directly to Brother Richard while the UAMS social worker called parents and arranged for immediate evaluation, she said.
Though individual results are confidential, in general there were some positive results among the 71 freshmen screens, Hurst said. But a positive result could mean any number of emotional problems. There were no actively suicidal students discovered, she said.
According to National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center statistics, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers. A survey of high school teens found one in five had seriously considered attempting suicide while one in 12 had actually attempted suicide in the past year. Though teenage girls are more likely to attempt suicide, teenage boys are four times more likely to actually kill themselves.
TeenScreen is "very important as an aid," Brother Richard said.
"One parent said that, although her son did not have a problem, it started communication between her and her son," he said. "That statement in itself made the whole program worthwhile, I thought."
CHS has also recently added Edward Dodge and Richard Heien to their counseling staff to allow Brother Richard, who also teaches religion and French, to spend more time counseling students.
Brother Richard said if funds were available in the future he would like to use TeenScreen on a regular basis.
Hurst said UAMS has applied for a federal grant to make TeenScreen available to schools across Arkansas.
