This post was originally published on Wednesday, January 6, on The Hill’s Congress blog.

By Bernadette Melnyk

American high schools are witnessing an increasing population of young people who are unhappy, in poor physical health and unable to visualize a future that is particularly bright. This may sound like a particularly ominous outlook; however, it’s a reality we must face if we are going to improve the prospects of advancement for our nation’s youth.

Evidence suggests that this is an unaddressed national crisis. One of every four to five American adolescents has some kind of mental health challenge, many of them struggling with various levels of depression and anxiety, yet many do not receive treatment. Additionally, roughly 15 percent of our youth are overweight and 17 percent are classified as obese. In essence, these percentages indicate that millions of U.S. teens are on a course that will have negative ramifications on their futures, as well as on the country’s health care systems, social service programs and economy.

The problem is that our educational systems are functioning as if this problem is not taking place. It’s not just that teens are falling through the proverbial cracks; the inherent weakness lies in the fact that the majority of schools don’t have the programs and creative, evidence-based approaches in place to address the needs of students with mental and physical challenges.

We must do better recognizing what is obvious and implementing solutions that make a difference in classrooms. One such tool is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has been used successfully by mental health professionals. CBT helps patients become aware of the negative thoughts that lead them to feeling anxious or depressed and making unhealthy decisions. With CBT, individuals are able to view their stressful daily challenges more clearly and respond to them constructively. So, if cognitive behavioral approaches can work well for therapists, why wouldn’t they have a similar impact in our classrooms?

New research suggests, in fact, that young people will benefit from teaching teens cognitive-behavioral skills. Recently, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health/the National Institute of Nursing Research involved nearly 800 teens in the southwestern United States. Half of the group was engaged in the COPE (Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment) Healthy Lifestyles TEEN (Thinking, Emotions, Exercise and Nutrition) cognitive behavior program, which was recently included in the National Cancer Institute’s database of Research-Tested Intervention Programs. The other half attended conventional health classes that taught topics like road safety, dental care and the importance of immunizations.

The COPE curriculum combined sessions to help develop better cognitive behavior skills with nutrition lessons and 20 minutes of physical activity that ranged from dancing to kick-boxing. The results have been striking.

In a follow-up evaluation one year after this program concluded, less than five percent of the teens in the COPE program were overweight (with none classified as obese). Among the youths who participated in the conventional health curriculum, double that number became overweight or obese. And, in fact, among teens whose households were enrolled in public assistance program – often connected with high rates of obesity – there was a significant decline in body mass percentile.

Behaviorally, students in the COPE program who began this study with severely elevated depressive symptoms had significantly lower symptoms of depression that were in the normal range, again with much more progress in this area than the students who were not involved in the cognitive behavioral classes.

This study tells us there is a need to rethink how we address mental and physical health in our nation’s high schools. Our current trajectory clearly isn’t working, not when we’re graduating students who are ill-equipped to cope with daily, real-world challenges and who face the high likelihood of chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease that accompany excessive body weight.

Our rhetoric about our children being our future should be accompanied by evidence-based educational approaches that can generate healthy, productive lives. Our youth deserve that chance.

Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, associate vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer and dean of the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University, is a world renowned authority and author on child and adolescent mental health.

Schools can significantly improve the long-term physical and mental health of teens by implementing cognitive behavioral skills-building into already existing high school health curriculums, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research and published in the December issues of the Journal of School Health.

The article reports that 12 months after completing the COPE Healthy Lifestyles TEEN Program, students had markedly lower body mass index than students who received a more standard health curriculum. Additionally, COPE teens who began the program with extremely elevated depression had symptoms in the normal range after 12 months.

COPE (Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment) Healthy Lifestyles TEEN (Thinking, Emotions, Exercise, Nutrition) teaches adolescents that how they think is directly related to how they feel and behave. It also teaches them how to turn negative beliefs triggered by “activating events” into positive beliefs so that they feel emotionally better and engage in healthy behaviors. The program is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with an emphasis on skills-building.

The lead author of the article is COPE creator Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, associate vice president for health promotion, chief wellness officer and dean of the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University. Melnyk is also a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Ohio State’s College of Medicine.

“CBT is the gold standard treatment for depression and anxiety, but it has traditionally been used in, one-on-one, hour long therapy sessions,” said Melnyk, who began developing the program more than 20 years ago as a pediatric and psychiatric nurse practitioner. “With COPE, I’ve created a tool that can be used by any health professional or educator so they can teach cognitive behavior skills to adolescents. This is huge for schools or community centers. We can really make positive impacts on teens’ lives by teaching these skills to them.”

This study was aimed at evaluating the long-term efficacy of COPE. A total of 779 high-school students aged 14 to 16 in the Southwestern United States participated in the study. Half attended a control class that covered standard health topics such as road safety, dental care and immunizations. The others were enrolled in the COPE Healthy Lifestyles TEEN program.

Health teachers were provided a full-day workshop on COPE and how to teach the program. The classroom curriculum blends cognitive-behavioral skills sessions with nutrition lessons and 20 minutes of physical activity, such as dancing, walking or kick-boxing movements.

The 12-month follow-up evaluation after the COPE program showed a significant decrease in the proportion of overweight and obese teens. Only 4.8 percent of COPE teens moved into the overweight category compared to 10 percent of the control group, Healthy Teens, who moved to either overweight or obese. None of the COPE teens  moved to the obese category.  Further, COPE teens who were on public assistance had a significant decline in body mass percentile following the intervention than teens on public assistance who were on public assistance.

A particularly important finding, Melnyk said, was that COPE students who began the study with severely elevated depressive symptoms had significantly lower depressive scores that fell into the normal range than the Healthy Teens students at 12 months post-intervention.

“Because the majority of adolescents with depression do not receive treatment, and even fewer receive CBT, it is vital that we provide them the tools and ability to engage in positive thinking and employ effective coping,” she said. “The feedback from the teens during the open-ended evaluations included hundreds of comments specifically indicating that the COPE program helped them deal effectively with stress and anger as well as to feel better about themselves.”

This latest article reflects a continuation of positive results from COPE.

In 2013, Melnyk published an article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, examining immediate and six-month outcomes of COPE. Those results showed increased physical activity; decreased BMI; higher grades, better scores in cooperation, assertion and academic competence – as rated by teachers; and lower alcohol use.

Melnyk said next steps should include implementation of COPE into health curricula across the country. Because a variety of professionals can learn the program, she hopes to see widespread use in schools, community centers and youth organizations to help teens lead healthier, happier lives and perform better academically.

The National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research supported this research.

The article notes that overweight/obesity and mental health disorders are significant public health problems that threaten health outcomes and academic performance of U.S. teens. Approximately 17 percent of U.S. youth are obese and 15 percent are overweight, according to research cited by Melnyk.

Additionally, 15 million U.S. youth have a mental health problem that interferes with functioning at home or school, but fewer than 25 percent receive treatment, and even fewer receive CBT.