Mayo Clinic Partners with Advocacy Organizations to Create Tools to Help Recognize Youth Mental Health Disorders

Friday, October 28, 2011

Mayo Clinic researchers — in partnership with numerous national mental health advocacy organizations — are issuing new simple-to-understand tools to help identify youth who may have mental health disorders.

TELECONFERENCE BRIEFING: Drs. Jensen, Blau, Romanelli, Gruttadaro and others will make brief statements and be available for questions during a teleconference briefing on Friday, Oct. 28, at 10 a.m. EDT. Please RSVP to lkelly@mayo.edu if you plan to attend or participate by phone.

Issuing these tools is consistent with the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General call in 2001 to develop a set of easily identifiable mental health disorder warning signs among youth for use by parents, professionals and community members.

Despite well-documented levels of emotional and behavioral concerns in the nation's youth, studies have repeatedly shown that up to 75 percent of youth with mental health disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, anxiety, and eating disorders are usually not identified, and youth do not receive the care they need.

After surveying more than 6,000 parents and children about mental health services in the United States during the past decade, researchers created a mental health disorder Action Signs tool kit to help easily identify symptoms for youth who may be experiencing mental disorders. Click here for a copy. The findings and epidemiology that led to the toolkit are published in the journal Pediatrics on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011.

Study researchers and youth mental health experts will discuss the new tools during a phone press conference on Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. EDT.

Phone/press conference information

At 9:45 a.m. EDT, call 800-705-4155 (toll-free) to get access to the conference. At 10 a.m., each speaker will be introduced and have a brief opportunity to discuss the new mental health Action Signs tool kit. A facilitator will moderate a Q-and-A with news reporters.

For those who plan to attend the conference in person, the site is:

National Alliance on Mental Illness Headquarters
3803 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203

Please RSVP to lkelly@mayo.edu if you plan to attend or call in.

Speakers/researchers available during the press conference

• Peter Jensen, M.D, Mayo Clinic — primary investigator of the findings, Action Signs
• Gary Blau, Ph.D., Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — Child, Adolescent and Family Branch
• Lisa Hunter Romanelli, Ph.D., executive director of the Resource for Advancing Children's Health (REACH) Institute
• Darcy Gruttadaro, J.D., director of the Child & Adolescent Action Center at National Alliance on Mental Health Illness
• Representatives from the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Academy of Pediatrics

Background

The Action Signs Project (originally called the Warning Signs Project), funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health, was developed at the Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute and completed by investigators at the REACH Institute and Mayo Clinic.

The project has used rigorous research methods, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnostic criteria, as well as the input of parents, doctors, teachers and youth, so that these Action Signs are worded in common-sense non-stigmatizing terms, yet still indicate significant emotional problems that should lead someone to seek professional input and possibly help.

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