Initiatives at Barrington High School to raise awareness about teenage mental illness in the wake of a number of suicides in recent years will be critiqued by doctors under a new partnership announced Wednesday.

The doctors from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University will evaluate such efforts as policies and procedures, programs, resources and communication surrounding mental health issues. They also will offer recommendations for improvements.

The Skokie-based Cheryl T. Herman Foundation, which supports education, diagnosis and treatment related to depression, bipolar disorders and associated illnesses, is funding the partnership.

Dr. John Zajecka, an associate professor of psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center who specializes in bipolar disorder, depressive disorders and mood disorders is one doctor and the other is psychologist Mark Reinecke, a professor and chief of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Feinberg School of Medicine. His specialty is developmental psychopathology of depression and suicide, and the treatment of adolescent depression.

The new effort stems from the suicides of five students and two staff members since the fall of 2007.