Schools play a crucial role in child development, education and apart from ensuring a bright future for children, enhance their mental well-being. Schools provide a platform for early identification and addressal of mental health concerns, ensuring children receive early intervention and support to prosper academically, socially and psychologically.
Why is Mental Health in Schools Important?
As of 2022, 69% of public schools have reported an increase in mental health concerns among students, most likely influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is also observed that one in six youth between the ages of 6 to 17 years experience a mental health disorder each year. Moreover, 12-22% of school-aged children have a diagnosable mental health disorder.
Addressing mental health needs of students in schools is extremely important through timely assessment and needs based support, counseling and intervention:-
- Untreated mental health conditions can lead to higher truancy rates, school dropout rates, unemployment, engagement in risky behaviors such as substance use and delinquent behavior.
- Moreover, poor mental health can also lead to issues in concentration, participation, learning and overall academic performance.
These aspects highlight the importance of mental health in education and schools, further, the need for promoting student mental health support.
Key Strategies to Promote Mental Health in Schools
Raising awareness about mental health helps students, teachers and allied staff to understand and encourages students to seek help for mental health issues.
- Mental Health Awareness in Schools can be implemented through organizing mental health workshops, events, training programs with the help of specialized mental health professionals such as school counselors, child and adolescent psychologists, developmental psychologists and more.
- School Mental Health Programs including socio-emotional learning programs to teach coping skills can be beneficial for all students in the long-term. Moreover, incorporating mental health into the education curriculum of students can help them develop necessary skills to enhance mental well-being.
- Mental Health Resources for Students include provision of counseling and psychological and mental health support services to students on-site who can address any behavioral, academic, developmental, social and personal issues. Moreover, providing mental health helplines and informative resources to students in school as well as their parents.
- Promoting Anti-Bullying and Inclusivity-based Programs in school to prevent harassment, bullying, discrimination and enforcing strong policies for the same.
- Training for Teachers and Staff including recognizing warning signs for mental health concerns, behavioral concerns, academic concerns and Psychological First Aid training to be able to respond in a emergency or crisis situation.
- Collaboration with Parents to host workshops for parents for psychoeducation regarding mental health initiatives they can take at home, awareness seminars to enable a supportive home environment and group discussions to provide social support for parents raising children with mental health conditions.
- Partnering with Local Mental Health Organizations can help in bringing attention to any specific concerns of students, teachers or parents by providing them specialized and additional expertise, resources and guidance to holistically manage any mental health concern.
School Mental Health Programs
Taking a mental health initiative in education and school settings has been found to improve the mental health of students in schools. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) collaborates with schools to implement evidence-based mental health programs that empower both students and teachers to recognize early signs of mental health concerns and build emotional coping mechanisms and regulation skills.
The Jed Foundation is one other such organization that collaborates with schools on programs working towards suicide prevention and improvement of emotional health.
Second Step is a widely known program that many schools employ which involve social-emotional learning programs that help students manage, regulate emotions as well as build and maintain healthy relationships.
Promoting Mental Health in Education
School based mental health initiatives have successfully and positively impacted many areas of student mental health concerns and development:
- Improved academic performance and engagement
- Increased attendance rates
- Reduced likelihood of school dropout
- Improved emotional regulation skills and coping mechanisms
- Enhanced emotional resilience and stress management
- Reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms
- Decreased incidents of bullying
- Social skills development and improved peer, adult relationships
- Early identification and interventions of mental health concerns
- Reduced need for disciplinary actions and measures
- Encouragement of help-seeking behaviors
- Self-awareness and greater emotional intelligence
Promoting mental health and wellness in schools is not merely about addressing mental health issues but it also involves creating a safe, open, non-judgmental environment where students feel supported, valued and know there are support services ready at their disposal. A combination of training teachers and staff, and school counselors for early identification and intervention of mental health challenges, school counseling services, mental health support programs and collaborations with mental health organizations, families and communities is an essential step towards fostering a strong student mental health support network and improving emotional and mental health of students in the long run.
For support!
