Why should Mental Health be Taught in Schools

Have you ever wondered why mental health should be taught in schools?

Mental health should be taught in education so our youth develops into the greater generation of tomorrow. To be more accurate, it was found that 94% of the people answered yes, mental health should be a part of a school’s educational curriculum. Throughout weeks of conducting research on if mental health should be implemented and taught in schools, it has become evident that the answer is yes. As there are 49 other states, the mental health systems in schools can be expanded upon and be one of the greatest programs in the country.

By paying attention to your mental health, you are taking care of the rest of you. This essay will follow to identify that the subject of mental health, however, can be challenging with close ones such as family and or friends. Many often, people won’t consult a mental health professional until they’ve had a crisis. Another important factor in preventing a decline in mental health is your social group.

Why Mental Health Should Be Taught in Schools?

Throughout weeks of conducting research on if mental health should be implemented and taught in schools, it has become evident that the answer is yes. Many people don’t realize it until they or a loved one is affected, but the lack of resources available to our youth is saddening. School is where the majority of teenagers, or even kids starting from the age of four or five, spend most of their time. They create interpersonal relationships there, learn how to thrive in real-world situations, and most of all, learn how to expand their academic knowledge. Although learning how to read, write, do math, and science are important, so is learning how to take care of yourself, and not just physically by taking a shower or brushing your teeth.

When emotional well-being is affected, so is the rest. Our minds are fueled by energy, and our mind is what sends us in the direction of success and the ability to move forward in our everyday life. That being said, with school being the majority of where time is spent in our early academic years, it’s important that no subject gets left behind. The school creates a lot of stress. Whether it’s trying to get good grades, getting assignments and tests on time, or having friend issues, there’s one common ground between all: mental health. Therefore, mental health should be taught in education so our youth develops into the greater generation of tomorrow.

Research and Methods

Combing through validated and reliable sources, multiple ideas, statistics, polls, and talking to school counselors, numerous pieces of evidence have proven the claim. Through every trusted source, the domain has been .org, or the person of the article is verified. Most of the research that has been conducted has been done so in either the intention of supporting a study or simply doing more research on the topic of mental health in schools. By using social media, I was able to use Artificial Intelligence to collect data by asking my question and having real-life people that I know answer them, one of the replies being from a school counselor.

Through using social media such as Instagram, I ran a poll for 24 hours and got 179 answers. To be more accurate, 94% of the people answered yes, mental health should be a part of a school’s educational curriculum. The other remaining six percent reported no, being against the idea. As you can see, although six percent said no, the number of people who said yes was outvoted by a vast majority of 88%.

How Mental and Physical Health Go Together

To start off, it’s common to misunderstand how mental and physical health are related. Although they are frequently seen as distinct things, the two are interrelated. Health is highly regarded by the World Health Organization as a condition of whole physical, mental, and social well-being. The idea that ‘mind’ and ‘body’ are not connected leads to the false belief that mental illness is not a physical ailment. In actuality, your physical and emotional wellness are directly related. Many people do not realize how prevalent mental illness is. In any given year, about one in five adults suffer from a mental disorder, and even higher in the youth ages. Being depressed is only one aspect of mental illness.

It encompasses a broad range of issues, including those that impact emotion, thinking, or behavior. Some examples include but are not limited to depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, bipolar depression, addictive behaviors, borderline personality disorders, etc. Due to aberrant brain chemical action, depression alone can result in chronic fatigue, sleeplessness, and increased sensitivity to aches and pains.

Exhaustion and mental disease are intimately related, and ongoing fatigue can rapidly deteriorate one’s physical health. Chronically depressed or anxious people are less likely to exercise and, when they do, are more likely to stop early. Additionally, mental illness can make it difficult to practice good hygiene, making a person more susceptible to sickness. (Anne Marie Oberheu, 2019) & (Hillside, 2019).

If mental health is neglected, your physical health goes down as well. For example, if your state of health gets bad enough, serious side effects occur, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, weakened immune system, asthma, obesity, G.I. problems, and most of all, sudden death (Anne Marie Oberheu, 2019).

Mental Health and Suicidal Ideation

Suicide is one of the world’s most common causes of death in late childhood and adolescence; however, even though it occurs more frequently in older people than in younger ones, they are still affected. Numerous young lives are directly lost as a result of this, but it also has disruptive psychosocial repercussions and harmful socioeconomic effects. From the standpoint of general mental health, youth suicide is a critical issue that has to be addressed. It needs to be a worldwide consensus at this point that a thorough understanding of the risk variables is understood in our youth (Bilsen, 2018).

Young people are predisposed to mental health issues, particularly during their growing adolescence. This stage of life is marked by change, movement, and simultaneous transitions from one state to another in a number of different domains. Young people must make decisions concerning significant, concrete aspects of their lives, such as school, living arrangements, peer groups, etc. They must also deal with fresh difficulties in terms of forming their own identities, enhancing their sense of self, gaining more freedom and accountability, establishing fresh personal relationships, etc. They experience ongoing, shifting psychological and bodily processes themselves at the moment. In addition, kids frequently deal with classmates and important relatives who have great expectations for them—sometimes even excessively high ones (Bilsen, 2018).

A certain amount of helplessness, insecurity, worry, and a sensation of losing control are unavoidably brought on by the circumstances listed above. Young people need access to considerable supportive resources, such as a secure living situation, close connections, and a structural framework, in order to handle these issues and successfully manage these emotions. Risk factors can be thought of as elements that weaken this support or make it more difficult to access these resources, whilst protective elements fortify and safeguard these resources or function as a buffer against risk factors (Bilsen, 2018).

The most effective suicide prevention strategies can be population-based (e.g., mental health promotion, education, awareness raising through mental resilience campaigns, careful media coverage, limiting access to lethal means), target high-risk subgroups (e.g., targeted school-based programs, educating gatekeepers in various fields, providing crisis hotlines and online help, detecting and coaching dysfunctional families), or even focus on those who have already been identified as suicidal (e.g., improving mental health treatment, follow-up after suicide attempts and strategies for coping with stress and grief) (Suicide Prevention Resource Center, 2020).

Negative Impact On School

Student performance is highly affected by mental health issues that impair their degree of vigor, focus, reliability, mental capacity, and optimism. According to research, sadness, and anxiety co-occurring can strengthen the link between depression and poor grade point averages. The decision to leave school has also been associated with depression, which increases dropout rates. Even college students claim that their studies are affected by mental health issues. According to the American College Health Association’s 2015 survey, the following mental health conditions have recently had a negative impact on college student’s academic performance (Suicide Prevention Resource Center, 2020).

Treatment for Mental Health

When not in school, students and anyone, in general, can try to heal and recover; they just have to want to. For example, depression and anxiety can be reduced by exercise by releasing feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin and endorphins. Simply picking an exercise routine or program that is effective for them it’s a step in the right direction. This could involve yoga that is more thoughtful and intention-driven, aerobic interval training, or something in between. It’s important that they adhere to and stick to it (Anne Marie Oberheu, 2019).

Depression, worry, and stress have all heightened in the case of getting insufficient sleep. Everyone, and most importantly, growing youths, should get seven or more hours of sleep every night. When running off of no energy from getting a bad night’s rest, you become more irritable, agitated, and overall don’t feel good. Your academic performance is greatly affected by this as a lack of trying most likely occurs at the same time from having no energy (Anne Marie Oberheu, 2019).

Another important factor in preventing a decline in mental health is your social group. The subject of mental health, however, can be challenging with close ones such as family and or friends. This frequently keeps people from getting assistance. Don’t be reluctant to ask friends and relatives for help (Anne Marie Oberheu, 2019).

Many often, people won’t consult a mental health professional until they’ve had a crisis. A Columbia University Medical Center study from 2016 found that less than one-third of American individuals who tested positive for depression received treatment. Being proactive and speaking up for yourself decreases the chance you have of reaching a mental health crisis (Anne Marie Oberheu, 2019).

How Teachers Can Help Students

New York has become the first state in the union to mandate mental health education for all schools starting in July 2018 in order to ‘break down barriers of learning so the general well-being of students, families, and school staff can be enhanced in collaboration with other comprehensive student support and services,’ the School Mental Health (SMH) program in New York has as its overall mission the promotion of healthy social, emotional, and behavioral development in students.

Some examples of what the SMH has done: Including thorough services and assistance at every grade level, evaluating the need for mental health care through widespread, targeted, and selective treatments, granting access to programs and services for behavioral and mental health, utilizing senior staff, such as those working for the Department of Education, to provide the support and services required fostering cooperation between the school and the families and communities of the children.

This is just from one state and one organization. As there are 49 other states, the mental health systems in schools can be expanded upon and be one of the greatest programs in the country. Just because a student has to attend school for seven hours (plus), that doesn’t mean he or she has to neglect their personal well-being. Schools should be teaching that it’s ok to take care of yourself, especially when social media tells you the complete opposite of how you’ll never be enough no matter what you do or what you do or don’t change.

Conclusion

All in all, teachers and administrators can try to increase student understanding until mental health education is made a requirement in all schools. The idea of self-care, responsibility for one’s own mental health and wellness, with an emphasis on the fact that mental health is an essential component of health, and the idea of recovery from mental illness are important topics to bring to light (Bilsen, 2018).

There should be opportunities to raise awareness of and handle mental health crises, including the danger of suicide or self-harm, as well as strategies for teachers and students to spot early warning signs of developing mental health problems. Additionally, education should cover the connection between mental health, substance misuse, and other harmful coping mechanisms, as well as the detrimental effects of each (Bilsen, 2018).

In conclusion, the why should mental health be taught in schools essay highlights the critical need for mental health education in our educational system. By integrating mental health into the curriculum, we can ensure that our youth are better equipped to handle the challenges of life, leading to a healthier and more resilient future generation.

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