Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
Objectives.Wesought todeterminethedegreeofoverlapbetweenstudents identified through school-based suicide screening and those thought to be at risk by school administrative and clinical professionals. Methods. Students from7 high schools in theNewYorkmetropolitan area completed the Columbia Suicide Screen; 489 of the 1729 students screened had positive results. The clinical status of 641 students (73% of those who had screened positive and 23%of thosewho had screened negative) was assessedwithmodules from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children. School professionals nominated by their principal and unaware of students’ screening and diagnostic status were asked to indicate whether they were concerned about the emotional well-being of each participating student. Results. Approximately 34% of students with significantmental health problems were identified only through screening, 13.0%were identified only by school professionals, 34.9% were identified both through screening and by school professionals, and 18.3% were identified neither through screening nor by school professionals. The corresponding percentages among students without mental health problems were 9.1%, 24.0%, 5.5%, and 61.3%. Conclusions. School-based screening can identify suicidal and emotionally troubled students not recognized by school professionals. (Am J Public Health. 2009;99:334–339. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.127928)
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Comments
Citation:
Scott, M. A., Wilcox, H. C., Schonfeld, I. S., Davies, M., Hicks, R. C., Turner, J. B., & Shaffer, D. (2009). School-based screening to identify at-risk students not already known to school professionals: The Columbia suicide screen. American Journal of Public Health, 99, 334-339.