In the behavioral health field, it is clear that the most high-stakes developmental period is adolescence, when mental illness and substance use problems often emerge. During adolescence, experimentation or risky use of substances can eventually progress into addiction, with 90 percent of individuals with substance use disorders reporting that they initiated use of substances before age 18.
Adolescence is also a common developmental window for the onset of mental health problems, with half of all lifetime cases of mental illness beginning by age 14. Behavioral health challenges often interrupt academic pursuits, causing half of students with mental illness to drop out of school, and contribute to involvement with the justice system, supported by findings that 70 percent of those in the juvenile justice system have mental illnesses.
[For more of this story, written by Jake Bowling, go to http://youthtoday.org/2016/02/...ce-is-our-best-shot/]
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