Columbia University TeenScreen Program

The Columbia University TeenScreen Program is a national mental health and suicide risk screening program dedicated to helping parents find teens with the known risk factors for suicide by making voluntary mental health check-ups available to all American families.

TeenScreen helps communities throughout the nation establish early identification programs. Families are offered the opportunity for their teen to participate in a screening for mental health problems, such as depression and other suicide risk factors. TeenScreen is currently being implemented in 43 states and continues to grow and be embraced by more than 450 communities across the country. Screening is offered through schools, clinics, doctors' offices, juvenile justice facilities, and other youth-serving organizations and settings.

Partnership with Ohio

The Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH), led by the previous director, Dr. Michael Hogan, entered into a unique collaboration with Columbia University TeenScreen Program in October 2002.

The first step of the partnership in Ohio began with piloting the Columbia University TeenScreen Program in five counties in Ohio. Over the course of the 2003-2004 school years multiple school-based sites in five counties participated in the pilot: Columbia University TeenScreen staff provided all sites with pre-training consultation, training, screening instrument, post-training technical assistance, screening materials and program evaluation at no cost. ODMH provided pilot sites with mini-grants of $15,000 per county to assist with offsetting cost associated with start-up, purchasing direct behavioral health care services, purchasing and disseminating educational and informational materials, providing incentives to secure parental consent and planning for capacity building activities. At the close of the school year, a total of 12 schools participated in the pilot, 1,739 students were screened, 435 (25%) students screened positive and 178 (10%) students were referred by a clinician or mental health professional and linked to evaluation and treatment services.

 In step two of the partnership, Ohio continued the Columbia University TeenScreen Program in the five pilot counties and added (10) additional counties during the 2004-2005 school years. ODMH entered into a one year contractual partnership with Columbia University in October 2004 that provided 1FTE based in Ohio to provide technical assistance and training to new sites and ongoing support and technical assistance to existing sites. The contract agreement also provided mini grants in the amount of $5,000 per county to offset cost associated with start-up. At the close of the school year, a total of 21 schools participated, 1,490 students were screened, 358 (24%) students screened positive and 200 (10%) students were referred by a clinician or mental health professional on for further evaluation. In addition, 128 (10%) of the students screened reported having suicidal thoughts and 56 (4%) reported a suicide attempt.

 In step three of the Ohio Partnership, the Ohio TeenScreen Program Coordiniator position transitioned to the newly created Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation headquartered at The Ohio State University (OSU). OSU entered into a one year contractual partnership with Columbia University in July 2006 that provided continued funding for the FTE, Ohio TeenScreen Program Coordinator based in Ohio to provide technical assistance and training to new sites and ongoing support and technical assistance to existing sites. The Ohio Department of Mental Health provided $30,000 to support the FTE and provide mini-grants to assist new programs with offsetting cost associated with start-up, purchasing direct behavioral health care services, purchasing and disseminating educational and informational materials, providing incentives to secure parental consent and planning for capacity building activities.