Yes, it's a rant - but a worthy one

I've tried to stay away from the rants lately. But, I think this one may be worthy of some social attention, possible actions, and careful thought.

Yesterday, I read an article in the NY Times about a "mental health check up" questionnaire that a counselor has developed to help screen teenaged human children for mental health needs. This counselor type was alarmed at the rapid increases in the number of teenaged children committing suicide, and developed this questionnaire to target those areas which are often predictors of suicidal behavior. There are three parts -- depression, alcohol/drug use/abuse, and suicidal history. If a teenager indicates yes to any of these questions, there are follow up questions. Depending upon the answers to the follow up questions, the teen in question may be referred for further evaluation by a professional and/or referral for counseling/interventions. The goal is to prevent the precious fruits of humans from killing themselves before they really get a chance to be their own little people.

Of course, you humans cannot do anything without drawing the criticism of some of you. (A military type friend of mine says frequently "no good deed goes unpunished") Critics say that if we give this short little questionnaire to teens all over the place, then we will overwhelm the existing mental health services with people who may actually be at low risk or have less need than people with more serious needs. The other side of that coin seems to be that we would be identifying youth with need for mental health services where the services may be inadequate to respond appropriately to the need.

Okay people, this test is designed to allow adults to intervene with youth before they actually harm themselves. In the lab, I saw lots and lots of critters try to harm themselves either as the ultimate escape or as a way of gaining attention. It's not pretty, and the damage, regardless of the physical hurt, is long lasting. I don't know if you really want to force human children to do damage to themselves physically because the mental/emotional has broken down so much. Shouldn't you humans consider youth deemed high risk for suicide as "in need" as much as anyone? Or, have we come to the point where we'll spend any amount of money on professional sports/athletes or war but won't spare a few dollars to keep tomorrow's good citizens alive long enough for them to be adults? Or, are humans only concerned about the harm you may do to others and are just fine with the harm you may do to yourself?

The creators of this questionnaire respond to critics by saying that they require school systems requesting this quiz (which, by the way, the creator provides to school systems free of charge -- apparently he believes the issue of youth suicide is serious enough that he will forego making a profit from his labors) must be able to demonstrate that they have a system in place in which professionals can respond to the youth identified as being in need of services prior to they test being supplied.

I admire this guy tremendously. He identified a serious issue, found a fairly simple way to help adults identify who needs help, and supplies the first block of helping kids free of charge. I think we need to pin a medal on this guy. I also think that communities need to seriously rethink how they spend their resources if you can pay politicians to change the name of french fries in the congressional commissary but you can't provide a basic response to a child in pain.