Helping troubled teens

High school students suffering from severe mental health and behavioral disorders aren't always getting the services they need, according to one of the findings of a five-year study led by Special Education Prof. Lee Kern.

"Interventions are available that are very successful at reducing the difficulties adolescents experience, and schools are in an ideal position to provide these services," says Kern, who led a team of researchers from seven universities. But, she says, "we found, through a school resource mapping process, that school resources are not being used effectively and efficiently.

"For example, school staff spend a lot of time responding to crises, rather than putting preventive interventions in place. Also, trained school staff, including counselors, spend a lot of time on tasks such as scheduling that do not capitalize on their skills."

Because research shows students rarely follow through with community-based services, Kern says, school-based interventions are critical.

"Our concern is there are a lot of adolescents who greatly need mental health interventions, classroom supports, etc., but there are no guarantees they will actually get these services," she says.

The study was funded with a $10.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Kern and fellow researchers from Ohio University, University of Missouri, University of South Carolina, University of Kansas, University of Houston (TIMES) and Miami University of Ohio created the National Research and Development Center on Serious Behavior Disorders on the Secondary Level.

To assure students get the support they need, researchers are recommending that school officials conduct assessments to better identify students who have mental health difficulties and track dropout indicators, such as failing courses and high absenteeism.

In other findings, students appeared to show incremental improvements with certain key interventions. Also, disability labels appeared to be futile.

"We asked schools to refer students with the most intensive needs, whether they had a disability label or not," Kern says. "We found no significant differences in any area [with the exception of academic performance among students with learning disabilities] between students with and without a disability label. This has important implications because students with special education diagnoses are legally entitled services, but students without disabilities are not, in spite of their need."

Story by Elizabeth Shimer Bowers