President Obama

President Obama speaking at Newton, Conn., in December 2022 following the deadly schoolhouse shooting.

President Barack Obama on Monday asked teachers to help identify and seek help for children who are suffering from mental health disorders, proverb that it was time to bring "mental illness out of the shadows."

More than 75 percent of mental illnesses, including depression, panic disorder, schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa, emerge when children are school-aged or immature adults, Obama noted. But he said that only about half of children who need mental health treatment receive it. The untreated disorders can pb to poor academic operation, behavioral issues in the classroom, social isolation at school, and in the almost farthermost cases, suicide and violence.

Obama pledged to launch a "national chat" on mental health after the shootings at Sandy Hook Unproblematic in Newtown, Conn., in Dec. On Monday, he sought to abnegate the notion that people who endure from depression or other mental illness are to be feared.

"I want to be absolutely clear: The overwhelming majority of people who suffer from mental illnesses are non violent," Obama said in his opening remarks at the National Briefing on Mental Health, held at the White House. "But we also know that most suicides each year involve someone with a mental health or substance abuse disorder. And in some cases, when a status goes untreated, it can lead to tragedy on a larger scale."

He added, "We've got to do a amend task recognizing mental health issues in our children and making it easier for Americans of all ages to seek help." As i step, Secretary of Wellness and Man Services Kathleen Sebelius appear the launch of a new government website, mentalhealth.gov, to provide information and resources about mental illnesses.

Christine Toleson, president-elect of the California Association of School Psychologists, applauded the effort. "You lot need to increase the awareness of teachers, considering they are part of the team working with the pupil," said Toleson, a schoolhouse psychologist for foster youth in the Los Angeles Unified School District. "What is the teacher'south purchase-in for mental wellness? Some teachers would say 'I didn't sign up to be a advisor,' but it is crucial that teachers have grooming in all these dissimilar domains."

Teachers are on the front end lines in identifying children who need mental health care. President Obama'south proposed budget for 2022 would classify $205 million for mental health programs, including training teachers to recognize signs of mental affliction, and implementing programs to improve school climate and well-existence for all students.

Simply even without that funding, Obama noted that more than 40 organizations, including the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Clan of Uncomplicated School Principals, have pledged to educate teachers, administrators, staff, students and families about mental health issues. Co-ordinate to the White House conference organizers, the National Association of Secondary School Principals has called on its 25,000 members, middle and high schoolhouse principals and assistant principals from across the land, to hold schoolhouse assemblies on mental wellness awareness by the end of 2013. To assistance principals conduct effective assemblies, the School Social Work Association of America, American School Counselor Association and the National Association of Schoolhouse Psychologists will develop online resources, including give-and-take topics and activities related to mental health sensation.

The conference included mental wellness awareness initiatives such as MTV's One-half of U.s. website, which features celebrities such as singer Mary J. Bilge and actor Vinny Guadagnino talking most their struggles with depression and anxiety. In addition, actor Bradley Cooper spoke about how he gained awareness of bipolar disorder by playing a character in the film "Silverish Linings Playbook."

Amy Smith, president of the National Association of School Psychologists, asked U.Southward. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the White Business firm conference if in that location was a plan to increase the number of schoolhouse psychologists. Duncan said that funding depended on passage of the president's budget and decisions fabricated by school districts themselves. "My hope in asking the question was to put the consequence on the table," Smith said in a afterwards interview. "We can't forget that children are at schoolhouse all twenty-four hour period long. If we can increase the number of providers (of mental health services), we tin drastically impact the number of children who need services who volition get them."

Smith said her grouping advocates a ratio of i school psychologist for every 700 students. While unable to accurately estimate the electric current ratio of students to school psychologists, she said, "Typically, the ratio is much college than that."

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