Prevention of mental health disorders should be part of the school curriculum, according to an article written by the Children’s Health Policy Centre, appearing in The BC Counsellor, a publication of the BC School Counsellors Association.

“Nearly 13% — or more than 100,000 four-to-18-year-olds in British Columbia— will experience mental disorders at any given time,” said the authors. “[And] recent data confirms that only 44.2% of young people with mental disorders receive any services for these conditions.

“This combination of high prevalence coupled with limited service reach has resulted in the mental health of young Canadians reaching a crisis point.”

Proven programs are known from the research evidence for preventing anxiety, behaviour disorders, depression, substance misuse and eating disorders, among other problems — and could help prevent much distress and also reduce later unnecessary costs in healthcare, special education and child protection. But these programs need to be made much more widely available.

“BC’s children will benefit, as will everyone, if children’s mental health is made a public policy priority,” the article said. “School counsellors are particularly well equipped to take leadership in meeting this goal.”

Authors of the piece included: Christine Schwartz, Jessica Tang, Jen Barican and Charlotte Waddell.

Read the full article here.