Emotional Health

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Notes from the Backpack Podcast


Ensure Access to Mental Health Services

The Facts

Early detection, treatment and Family-School Partnerships work.

  • Half of all lifetime cases of mental disorders begin by age 141. While 21% of all children ages 9 to 17 in the United States have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder2, only 20% of them are identified and receive mental health services each year3.
  • Early detection and treatment of mental disorders is imperative for student success. Half of all students ages 14 and older who live with a mental illness drop out of high school—the highest dropout rate of any disability group—and these youth also experience higher suicide and incarceration rates4.

Together, we can increase the percentage of students who receive the mental health services they need in order to succeed in school, continue to develop socially, and fully experience the purpose and joys of life.

Emotional Health

New Mental & Emotional Health Resources

Shine Light on DepressionDepression and suicide are hiding in plain sight, affecting more and more young people.

National PTA is part of a five-organization collaboration working to create real and hopeful conversations around mental health. Get involved.



Mental Health and the State PTA Webinar

Addressing mental health in our schools can be complicated and overwhelming. How does the State PTA best fit in? How can we make the biggest difference and how do we get started?

Join us as we hear from Lynn Makor, MA, CAGS, Consultant for School Psychology, and Sharon Goldblatt, Member, National PTA Mission Engagement Committee and Past State PTA President in this November 29, 2018 recorded webinar facilitated by Kelly Langston, Member, National PTA Mission Engagement Committee.

  • What is mental health?
  • What should we be considering when discussing mental health in our schools?
  • What does the data tell us?
  • What are the facts?
  • How do we use the data to prioritize our efforts?
  • What advocacy efforts have had/might have the greatest impact?



Learn More: Webinars for Families


Additional Resources


1National Institute of Mental Health Release of landmark and collaborative study conducted by Harvard University, the University of Michigan and the NIMH Intramural Research Program (release dated June 6, 2005 and accessed at nimh.nih.gov) 2 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Insititutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, 1999. 3 U.S. Public Health Service, Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, 2000. 4 U.S. Department of Education, Twenty-third annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Washington, D.C., 2001.