Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
how school affects mental health essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: how school affects mental health essay
Can you picture the student voted “most likely to succeed” in your graduating class? This individual must have had everything going for them. They probably had good grades, popular, never in trouble, no health issues and socially and emotionally stable. However, twenty years later, after graduating college, a successful business owner, had a beautiful wife and three kids, he decides emotionally he is done and takes his own life. Mental health issues can manifest at anytime with varying degrees of significance on the emotional stability of a person. Factors such as socioeconomic status, biological and environmental issues all dictate mental health needs. Obviously, a variety of circumstances can evoke these mental health issues. Now imagine coping with these mental health issues and being expected to still be a normal student and conform to your peers around you. This is what we expect of our students dealing with a variety of mental health issues. The policies and procedures are established to meet the needs of all students. The mental health issues are recognized and evaluated based on the best placement for the student to receive an education. The public school system has the responsibility to provide a free and appropriate education. The school does the best they can to provide a whole school approach to deal with the increasing number of mental health concerns. However, the mental health concerns carry on beyond high school.
The school provides a safe environment for students to accomplish academic, social and emotional development. The leadership of a building will include effective decision making, human resource management, mission or purpose, understanding of change, relationship buildi...
... middle of paper ...
...
Works Cited
Duchnowski, A.J., & Kutash, K. (2011). School Reform and Mental Health Services for
Students with Emotional Disturbances Educated in Urban Schools. Education
and Treatment of Children, 34 (3), 323-346.
Gergar, P.G., Hamlet, H.S., & Schaefer, B. A. (2011). Students Living with Chronic
Illness: The School Counselor’s Role. Professional School Counseling, 14 (3),
202-210.
National Policy Board of Education. (2010). Educational Leadership Policy Standards:
ISLLC 2008. Retrieved from http://www.npbea.org.
Rowling, L. (2009). Strengthening “School” in School Mental Health Promotion.
Health Education, 109 (4), 357-368.
Smith, C. R., Katsiyannis, A., & Ryan, J.B. (2011). Challenges of Serving Students
with Emotional and Behavior Disorders: Legal and Policy Considerations. Behavior Disorders, 36 (3), 185-194.
Many of these students, like Avery, may belive that there really is no light at the end of the tunnel, or that they are “just gonna be that weird depressed guy” and “should just accept it”. Not only is this belife self-destroying but it is also untrue. It is of vital importance that students suffering with mental illness are made aware that what they are going through is not permanent and that there are resources available for them, something many univercities and colleges need to make more
As a leader candidate, I can understand the challenges and multiplicity of complications that administrators must face each day. However, I will not accept any remote possibility that the students must be affected by some flaws of the school organization. We all as leaders, must be strategic with people, time, and money to guide our students towards an academic success.
Frank, V. V. (2009, September). Framework for Improvement: Effective School Leadership Translates into Increased Student Learning. The Learning Principal: National Staff Development Council , pp. 2, 6-7.
According to Blase, Blase, and Phillips (2010) educational leaders in high preforming schools effectively balance administrative and instructional leadership and provide stability, predictability and support. The current paradigm of educational leadership is management of facility, budget, school safety, and student discipline. Administrators must place more emphasis on methods to balance the responsibility of instructional leadership. It will require effective leadership characterized by their ability to redesign their schools into an effective organization. This can be done by a leader’s willingness to take risk. Risk taking would involve the leaders’ commitment to work collaboratively with teachers to set school wide and classroom goals suited to meet the unique needs of the students. It would require educational leaders to refuse to adopt a manufactured educational program but to make a commitment to their students and teachers to create a learning environment that is unique and relevant. Educational leaders would evaluate teachers on the effectiveness of their instructional practices. Each teacher would be held accountable for data that supports the need for goals developed for their classroom and methods used to track progress, use of instructional strategies, how assessment will be incorporated to drive instruction and monitor learning, and the effective use of assessment
The last issue to address is leadership. This role is challenging, but with commitment and determination it can be done. Strategies that I can take to encourage great leadership is to first build trust and confidence by fulfilling the school’s mission, vision, policy, and working environment (Drexler, 2007) on a daily basis. To be involved in school activities, in the classroom, at PTO meetings, and community affiliations will establish strong leadership skills. Providing valuable feedback, strategically planning to improve the school, and encouraging community support are other strategies that can be used to enhance leadership.
The majority of schools address issues such as violence, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse; however, suicide is not discussed until it is too late. Students face a multitude of difficult challenges as they leave school, and most teachers have no idea about their life at home. Schools need to provide certain guidelines for teachers to follow to alleviate this problem. A teacher’s role is not to just teach. It is to treat their students like they were their own children. Teachers can’t always prevent their students from self-destruction, although they can take steps to help the issue, such as creating a positive learning environment for their students, truly knowing their students, and providing exciting activities for the students to do.
When a student shows signs of suicidal ideation or thoughts of harming others, the ASCA Ethical Standard provides guidance for Professional School Counselors concerning the mitigation of this situation. The ASCA Ethical Standards state that when students express harm to self or others, parents or legal guardians, and/or authorities must be notified (ASCA, 2016). In addition, the ASCA states school counselor must cautiously use risk assessment so intervention can be created. School Counselors must ensure when they are speaking with parents that they do not negate the risk of harm (ASCA, 2016). Counselors are not permitted to release a student who is considered at risk until support personal is present (ASCA, 2016). All federal, state,
In 2003 President Bush’s created the, New Freedom Commission on Mental Health which outlines a plan to move forward in increasing early intervention and screening for children and adolescents. The report suggests that no one body or organization is charge of mental health care of children and adolescents. However schools and teachers are in the best position to provide support to young people because of the consistent exposure teachers have with their students. The report also suggests that because one’s mental health is so tightly intertwined with one’s educational success, that teachers play a vital role in identifying warning signs and linking students to services (Hogan et al., 2003, p. 58). These school based services have the potential to reach more vulnerable and potentially underserved populations with better opportunities to engage parents and the community in services. In order to provide optimum services, care, and proper interventions in schools things like stigma attached to receiving mental health services need to be addressed as well for students to feel comfortable obtaining care. The other necessity is also providing the teachers and counselors in schools the proper training and support based on evidenced based practices (Mills et al. 2006, p.155).
There are so many cases alike that are suffering from some sort of mental illness and have no idea that they are or don’t know what to do about it. Data compiled by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) indicate that approximately 15% of children in schools as of right now have untreatable mental illnesses. There are at least 200 known mental illnesses throughout the world, and at least 100 can affect everyone of all ages. Abuse and home conditions are large starters of mental illness, behind that is private and or public schooling. Mental illness can be started in the main places in a teens life, yet mental illness is not mandatory for even health classes to teach in
School boards need to teach the subject, the dark perception of mental disorders needs to be lifted, and judgements need to be removed. In order for people to understand the issue, affected individuals need to be able to feel safe to speak out. Friends and families need to make an effort to understand mental disorders to provide support instead of derogatory labels. Teachers should provide extra time and accommodated assignments to reduce intensity of mental health issues within students. Mental illnesses are not the same as physical illnesses, therefore they should not be treated the same. Mental disorders are serious illnesses but they cannot be solved by natural sciences and medication. Increase of education and support is the solution to mental health issues and stigmas, because they will create an understanding within society. Only understanding the situation will spark support for research and treatments. The most prominent issue which stresses mental disorders is the lack of understanding which leaves affected individuals isolated. There has been more awareness of mental health through prominent figures speaking out, the creation of organizations such as DART, NIMH, and SPEAK at Central Academy, and increased funds such as the National Mental Health Fund. Progress still needs to be continuously made to resolve mental health stigmas and
In the past 35 years the suicide rate for college campuses has tripled (Oswalt 1995). This shows that there is a clear need for something to be addressed within the college community. The recent surveys show that about 10-15% of college students are depressed (Lindsey 2009). Depression can be a debilitating illness especially when many students attend college away from their close friends and family. This could result in students with more suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide. In fact, the number of students with suicidal thoughts has tripled over the past 13 years as the number of students seeking help for depression doubled in the same span (Lindsey 2009). Depression can effect these teens in other areas of their life as well. The students who reported that they were depressed also reported that they considered their health fair or poor (Lindsey 2009). In their cases, depression not only effects them psychologically but also physically. Depression is also known to impair psychosocial development and academic success (Lindsey 2009). With all of these factors put togethe...
In every institution the type of leadership style is important for a successful environment. In order to establish a successful school environment to compete globally, the leader should comprehend the basic leadership theories and styles (Glickman et al., 2010). The cultures at schools are important to the success of the students and overall of the school, but also can be very difficult to establish and maintain without the proper leadership knowledge (Waite, 1995). In United States many schools could be place in the categories of conventional, congenial, or collegial, because the strategies used for their leadership (Glickman et al., 2010).The chosen school could be classified according to different criteria and could be determine in which area their leadership pertains more. In order to analyzed and classify the leadership, it was imperative to observed the way the leader make decisions, the approached with the stakeholders, how the instruction is delivered, and how they realized their job (Marshall, 2005). In this analysis will be identify the category that this school will be, the school climate, the type of supervision and leadership.
Our society today does not value our mental health like it should. If society would only pay as much attention to mental health, they would be better off in the long run. Think about an athlete playing a sport, they certainly understand how important physical health is. When a baseball player injures his knee, he is out and waits until it heals. But like many people, mental health is overlooked. Most teenagers do not realize that the many things like stress or eating disorders are coming from a poor mental state. They think that if they just ignore it they will snap out of it, this is not true and many times this kind of thinking will only make it worse (Change Your Mind). Mental health is not seen as important as physical health due to misconceptions and stigma behind mental health patients. By increasing the importance of personal mental health, people can reduce issues associated with mental health problems and raise awareness for people who suffer from mental health issues.
In schools everyday are many people influencing and taking the important role in education and supervision. In these roles are collaborating, teachers, principal, students, and educational supervisors, all these are the main basics of this process (Annan & Ryba, 2013). In an immediate setting, with a more encompass culture is guide by educators, principals, and other staff that supports the student’s success in a daily basis. In any school the culture is really important, but could be hard to establish and maintain (Moccozet, et al., 2009). In establishing a successful school it is pertain that all the staff have the knowledge about the different styles while leading, the main three are congenial, collegial, and conventional (Glickman, et al., 2010). Every school is classify by the leadership style and the decisions that are made, the instruction, the interactions with the stakeholders, or how the administration is done. Furthermore, will be analyze the supervision styles, the culture and the platform that will be follow.
Education is a very important aspect in the life of a child. The level of success a student has in the classroom is greatly influenced by their teachers. Students, as well as their parents, depend on the teachers to guide them through their education. But who guides a teacher to perform successfully in the classroom? Principals and teachers play an important role in schools. A good relationship among school leaders and teachers is necessary and play an important role in making improvements in the school. Leadership refers to the “process in which one person successfully exerts influence over others to reach desired objectives”. (Okoji, 2015) Good leadership involves honesty, vision, confidence and commitment. It is the ability to inspire a