Millions of American students suffer from mental health problems, and only a fraction are receiving necessary treatment, warns a brief from the American Institutes for Research.

And the prevalence of mental health problems appears to be growing. Sixty-two percent of college students reported feeling “overwhelming anxiety”over the previous year in 2016, up from 50 percent just five years prior. More alarming still, hospitalizations for mood disorders among children ages 17 and under leaped by 68 percent between 1997 and 2011.

Yet estimates show that almost half of all children with those emotional or psychological conditions don’t receive either medication or psychological services, and only 7.4 percent of adolescents report visiting with a mental health professional over the course of a year. Since the onset of these problems can be difficult to detect, and millions of families lack health insurance, children must often rely on mental health resources provided by their schools.

The report recommends that schools develop “multilevel, evidence-based interventions” to reverse the tide of young adults — particularly those living in poverty — struggling with depression, anxiety, and a host of other ailments.

Read the full article by Kevin Mahnken about mental health on The 74