Adolescence
Although mental health problems are very common in the adolescent years, even those patients with extreme symptoms often avoid seeking help and experience considerable delay in accessing appropriate care. As we know, if these conditions are left undetected and untreated, they can have long-lasting effects into adulthood and are associated with considerable costs to education, employment, physical health, welfare, and the criminal justice system. A group of researchers from Northern Ireland recently completed an exploratory study that included focus groups with 54 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 years in eight schools.1 Their findings suggest that young people do not …