The TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University has free resources to assist primary care providers (PCPs) with offering mental health checkups to adolescent patients in accordance with new federal recommendations to offer mental health checkups to all 12-to-18-year-old patients.

Free Adolescent Mental Health Checkup Questionnaires,

Pocket Screening Guides for Primary Care Providers Available from

Columbia University’s TeenScreen National Center

New York - Free resources to assist primary care providers (PCPs) with offering mental health checkups to adolescent patients are available from the TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University. These tools are designed to help physicians comply with new federal recommendations to offer mental health checkups to all 12-to-18-year-old patients. To date, more than 1,500 practices and providers have requested and received more than 160,000 free screening questionnaires.

One in ten children and adolescents suffer from a mental illness with significant impairment in day-to-day functioning at home, in school, or with peers. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, only 20 percent are identified and receive professional help. Tragically, suicide is a leading cause of death in this age group. An opportunity for mental health screening in primary care exists because one-third of mental health visits by privately insured children are to a primary care physician rather than to a specialist.

Recently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) both urged physicians in primary care to incorporate annual depression screening into adolescent visits. Thomas DeWitt, M.D., chair of Methodology for the USPSTF, at a forum about the recommendations said, "Identifying (depression) early on in adolescence and treating it…can prevent some of the trauma not only for the child, but for the families that go through this with their children."

The IOM 2009 Report, Preventing Mental, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People, stressed the importance of the early identification of mental illness in order to minimize life-long disabilities. Many mental illnesses today are treatable, and the first symptoms of mental illness occur two to four years before the onset of a full-blown disorder.

Screening Tools Available

TeenScreen Primary Care offers free evidence-based mental health questionnaires for use in primary care office waiting or examining rooms. The questionnaires help providers evaluate if a teen is suffering from depression, anxiety, or other conditions. A pocket guide and information on reimbursement and referrals is also available at: http://www.teenscreen.org/teenscreen-primary-care.

A CME course on mental health checkups, http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/702353, and a new paper, “Identifying Adolescent Mental Illness Early through Routine Mental Health Screening,” http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711264, are both currently available for health professionals on Medscape. More than 3,800 health professionals have completed this course.

The TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University is a national policy and resource center devoted to increasing youth access to regular mental health checkups. The National Center provides free tools for physicians and school professionals and supports screening efforts in 43 states and more than 700 communities. www.teenscreen.org