10/4/2022 -School-based mental health screening shows promising results
- October 04 2022
- By: info@njcfe.org
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School-based mental health screening shows promising results
September 29, 2022 | njspotlightnews.org
Advocates Thursday urged lawmakers to get behind a school-based program that would identify students most at risk for mental health issues and connect them with treatment. SBIRT — for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment — is a pilot program initiated in Bordentown in 2020 and interrupted by COVID-19, but now has proven results to show that it helped struggling students in Burlington County city. Of the 100 students who agreed to the screening, a quarter were referred to additional services, either through the school or outside programs.
It’s a model that Sen. Joe Vitale D-Middlesex) and Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (D-Burlington) are hoping to expand to high schools across the state; they’re working on a bill that would require districts to offer the SBIRT screening to all their high school students.