Introduction: Youth Mental Health—The Crisis of Our Time
•Depression and anxiety rates among youth have skyrocketed (e.g., 42% spike in Ohio 2016–2020 ).
•Schools are often the only point of access to mental health support for young people.
•Yet traditional “referral by teacher observation” misses many kids suffering silently.

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The Opportunity: Universal Screening
•Universal Mental Health Screening (UMHS) identifies needs across all students—not just those showing outward distress.
•Recommended by the U.S. Department of Education.
•Early detection → Early intervention → Better long-term outcomes.

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Case Study 1: King County, WA (“Check Yourself” SBIRT Model) 
•Focused on Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT).
•Embedded into school health workflows.
•Challenges: High volume of students identified; needed better systems to support follow-up.

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Case Study 2: Brandon, Ohio 
•Built a district-wide universal screening model.
•Phased rollout: starting small, scaling big.
•Key success factors:
•Buy-in from leadership and staff.
•Clear, compassionate response plans.
•Partner engagement for intervention capacity.

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Why Universal Screening Beats Targeted Screening
•Targeted screening (by teacher or counselor judgment) leads to bias and missed students.
•Universal screening normalizes mental health as part of overall student wellbeing.

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The Missing Link: Connection to Care
•Identifying needs is only step one.
•Without care coordination, schools risk overwhelming staff or letting identified students fall through the cracks.
•Care Hub: An integrated digital platform to:
•Manage referrals easily
•Communicate with families
•Track service outcomes
•Reduce admin burden on counselors and staff

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Policy and Practice Recommendations
•Fund both screening AND referral infrastructure.
•Build care navigation partnerships early.
•Prioritize scalable tech that preserves empathy and privacy.
•Plan for sustainability (staff turnover, funding changes).

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Audience Takeaways
•Proven frameworks for implementing UMHS.
•Lessons learned from large-scale deployments.
•Tools to ease care connection, not just identification.
•Policy arguments to support sustainable mental health infrastructure in schools.