Several school districts in North Texas are partnering with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to address mental illness and mental health among teenagers.
Plano ISD, along with Dallas ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Frisco ISD and Richardson ISD will be including a mental health component as a part of their health curriculum. A health care professional, trained by UT Southwestern psychiatrists, will teach curriculum emphasizing “risk and resilience.”
Topics will include depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and suicide. Instructors will interject role playing sessions and provide information on symptoms of mental illness and awareness.
“Teenagers experience their highest points of anxiety between 8th and 9th grade and 12th grade to college,” said Dr. Madhukar Trivedi who is leading the program. “Teenagers are in a state of transition during these two periods. If we can take some preventative measures, and get in front of the mental illness, we can positively impact generations to come.”
The program has the potential to impact thousands of teenagers who attend high school within the four districts. Certified UT Southwestern mental health professionals will instruct students for five weeks during their health class, starting late August and early September. There are two goals of the program. One, to identify students who need care immediately, and two, to identify students who are at risk for developing mental illness.
“When this happens to teenagers and young adults, it changes the course of their life," Trivedi said. "Their ability to form relationships, their ability to finish their education, their ability to have a meaningful work life, and their performance is much less if they would have been treated for depression.”
Last year more than 6 percent of the students that participated in the program expressed thoughts of suicide.
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Students who are at risk will be asked to participate in a 10-year research project. Trivedi is leading the project, which involved brain and blood research. The data collected will help doctors identify signs and symptoms at an earlier stage. Currently there are 250 students who have signed up to participate in the research portion. Parents are also asked to participate, so doctors can uncover any genetic links between parents and children.
If you would like to enroll students in the program, contact Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, who oversees the network at UT Southwestern’s Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care, part of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute. You can reach him by emailing Madhukar.Trivedi@utsouthwestern.edu or calling 214-648-6262.
