The school-based student services team serves a vital role in promoting positive mental health outcomes in students. Positive mental health is as critical to academic success as physical well-being. This interdisciplinary team collaborates with school personnel, community healthcare professionals, students, and families in the assessment, identification, intervention, referral, and follow-up of children in need of mental health services.
Mental health concerns and diagnoses that school-age children commonly experience include, but are not limited to, attention deficit hyperactivity, depression, bipolar diagnosis, anxiety, panic response, eating disorders, and substance abuse.
Video and content adapted from the National Alliance of Mental Illness
Trying to tell the difference between what expected behaviors are and what might be the signs of a mental illness isn't always easy. There's no easy test that can let someone know if there is a mental illness or if actions and thoughts might be typical behaviors of a person or the result of a physical illness.
Each illness has its own symptoms, but common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents can include the following:
Mental health conditions can also begin to develop in young children. Because they’re still learning how to identify and talk about thoughts and emotions, their most obvious symptoms are behavioral. Symptoms in children may include the following: