Responding to the Current Youth Mental Health Crisis and Preventing the Next One

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based upon material published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and is available as an open-access article. Across the country, mental health concerns affect children and youth in every community. Mental health providers are witnessing increased numbers of patients and increased severity of reported concerns. In the midst of this crisis, communities are exploring strategies for addressing children's and youth's mental health, including increased investment in prevention. Given this current crisis, the unprecedented response, and potentially increased funding,there are opportunities to learn how to better incorporate prevention and promotion strategies into systems and programs for children and youth support. To explore these opportunities, the National Academies' Forum for Children's Well-Being (the Forum) held a 3-day workshop in May 2022. This proceedings of a Workshop in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop. Additional details, including a recording of the workshop, can be found online. This course on the youth mental health crisis is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of the youth mental health crisis. The course material includes a literature review of mental health crisis prevention research. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding the youth mental health crisis. Specifically, a professional will: Describe the current mental health epidemic and its prevalence Identify ways that school programs can be effective Recognize what options lay ahead in tackling the youth mental health crisis Citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2022. Responding to the Current Youth Mental Health Crisis and Preventing the Next One: Proceedings of a Workshop in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26669