May 23, 2018, NBC5, DFW Airport, TX: Texas Program Prevents School Violence Through Mental Health Screenings https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Texas-Program-Prevents-School-Violence-Through-Mental-Health-Screenings-483516781.html State leaders were back at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's roundtable Wednesday, exploring every possible way to prevent another tragedy like the school shooting in Santa Fe. Wednesday's talks were focused on mental health needs in state schools, and spotlighted an innovative program in Lubbock. … Since the program started in 2014, in response to the Sandy Hook school and Aurora theater massacres, it has used mental health screenings, specifically violent risk assessments, to get psychiatric help to hundreds of children throughout the 10 school districts it serves. The TWITR project uses telemedicine to get teens whose behavior has raised red flags with counselors in front of a child psychiatrist, who can diagnose and prescribe treatment right away. According to this data brief, 41,807 students have been impacted by the TWITR project, and around 1% have been referred and screened by licensed professional counselors. Over 200 students have been triaged via telemedicine with the TTUHSC Psychiatry Department. Twenty-five students have been removed from school and 44 were placed in alternative placements. Thirty-eight students have been sent to an emergency room or inpatient hospital. Ninety-four students were referred for anger or violence, 65 for suicidal ideation and/or self harm, 36 for depression, and 57 for other reasons (eating disturbance, anxious behavior, truancy, etc.).
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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