Missouri: 97,000 young Missourians have "serious mental health problems"; 80% not being treated

Jan 19, 2018 (Missouri) Medical Express: Current mental health screenings alone not accurate enough to help elementary students, study finds https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-01-current-mental-health-screenings-accurate.html The Missouri Department of Mental Health reports that more than 80 percent of the 97,000 young Missourians who needed treatment for serious mental health problems in 2015 did not receive public mental health support. Many educators, counselors and social workers are working to improve practices to identify children who need help through risk assessments such as mental health screenings. In a recent study, Melissa Maras, a research consultant at the University of Missouri Assessment Resource Center, found a high degree of variance between teacher reports when using these screenings. Maras says creating a more holistic view of a student's behavior may be the key to identifying more children who need additional support. … Maras says that building the capacity of schools' mental health programs and investigating the accuracy of screening processes is crucial because many states, including Missouri, depend heavily on schools to meet the mental health needs of students. The ratio of school-employed mental health professionals to students in Missouri presents significant challenges. The ideal ratio is 1 social worker for every 250 students; the ratio for the 2016-2017 school year was 1 social worker for every 2,065 students. Statewide data show that Missouri also does not meet the recommended student-to-professional ratio for school counselors or school psychologists.