The global advancement of school mental health for adolescents

Adolescence is a time of significant development across all dimensions – physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social. It is also a time of significant vulnerability to life stress; negative family, peer, and neighborhood influences; and the development of mental illness, with around one in five youth showing signs of notable emotional/behavioral impairment (see Merikangas et al., 2010; Romero et al., 2014; Strang, Pruessner, & Pollack, 2011; Weist, Ginsburg, & Shafer, 1999). The school mental health (SMH) field is growing around the world (Kutcher & McLuckie, 2013; President's New Freedom Commission, 2003; Rowling & Weist, 2004; Wei & Kutcher, 2012; Weist & McDaniel, 2013; Weist, Lever, Bradshaw, & Owens, 2014), related to fundamental recognition that: (1) children, adolescents, and families usually make no or very poor connections to specialty mental health (Atkins et al., 1998; Catron, Harris, & Weiss, 1998); (2) schools are where children and youth are; and (3) many advantages accrue when education, mental health, and other youth-serving systems join together to better meet the mental health needs of students, in ways that reflect reducing and removing barriers to learning (Andis et al., 2002; Weist, 1997). National and global networks are increasingly recognizing the centrality of the SMH agenda as reflected in increasing funding, growing training opportunities, key policy initiatives, and an advancing research base that involves localities, states, regions, and countries pursuing common themes. Sadly, in some countries this agenda is receiving increased support through school shootings and the concomitant recognition of students' need for mental health services and missed opportunities for early identification and intervention (United States White House, 2013). A critically important agenda, and reflecting the public health approach (see Blau, Huang, & Mallery, 2010) is to develop a full continuum of effective promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment for adolescents in schools, and for this agenda to consider unique cultural, socioeconomic, and governmental factors as reflected in differences across nations. That is the purpose of this book, which we hope will spur advancements in research, practice, and policy in SMH for adolescents around the world.