4. School-based and school-linked programs have been developed for purposes of early intervention, crisis intervention and prevention, treatment, and promotion of positive social and emotional development.
Advocates mental health in schools
Clearly, mental health activity is going on in schools. Equally evident, there is a great deal to be done to improve what is taking place. The present norm related to efforts to advance mental health policy is for a vast sea of advocates to compete for the same little resources. This includes advocates representing different professional practitioner groups. Naturally, all such advocates want to advance their agenda. And, to do so, the temptation usually is to keep the agenda issue-focused and rather specific and narrow. Politically, this make some sense. But in the long-run, it may be counterproductive in that it fosters piecemeal, fragmented, and redundant policies and practices. Diverse school and community resources are attempting to address complex, multifaceted, and overlapping psychosocial and mental health concerns
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The school setting may be a good choice for such programmes to take place, as this is where young people spend much of their time. Research indicates that the whole-school approach is the most effective way of targeting mental health promotion. This approach seeks to change the ethos of the school and to make mental health a priority in education. In order for the whole-school approach to work, partnerships must to be formed between students, teachers and the wider community. The biggest challenges facing mental health promotion programmes are funding, timetabling and „buy-in‟ (the active participation of stakeholders). Where the whole-school approach is properly implemented, there is evidence to show that students benefit in a range of ways such as improved coping skills, behaviour and learning
In the letter written to the Senator of Colorado, I urged him to use his influence in the house to get this bill passed into law. I also like to urge other senators as parents and our government officials to work hard and ensure that this bill of ‘Mental Health in Schools Act’ passes and fully becomes law. It is true that this piece of legislation will give our youths and children the futures that they really deserve.
Illness. When most people hear that word, they think Cancer, Diabetes, AIDs, Ebola, or the Black Plague. The epitome of a sick person is tired, grey, and laying in bed. Now, imagine an ill person walking down the hall, sitting in class, or eating in the school cafeteria. Is it strange? This is no alternate reality. The term “illness” addresses both the physical and mental condition of a person. 20% of American teens are affected by some type of mental disorder that affects their capability to function (“Mental Health By The Numbers” 1). High schools are constantly searching for ways to improve this percentage, actions ranging from adding counselors to decreasing class size to delaying the bell schedule. One solution, known by many different names but unchanged in concept, is allowing students to take mental health days.
Over the past several years, the United States has shown a drastic improvement in how it has begun accepting mental illnesses and its patients. Through the country’s persistent method of detecting mental illnesses early and ending harassment to any person suffering from a mental illness, it is evident that the United States cares for those patients. For example, schools have taken the initiative to increase mental health screenings in order to diagnosis suffering teenagers as early as possible. An organization named TeenScreen has conducted several school-based screenings that screens students based on a questionnaire that is, “designed to identify depression, anxiety, and several other mental health conditions.” Post the screening, students who tested positive for a mental health condition were sche...
[3, 4] However, regardless the availability and accessibility of resources, many students feel discouraged towards accessing these services due to fear of adverse consequences, which may eventually have a huge negative impact on their future. [1, 5] Aside from the issue of availability and accessibility of services, another challenge is the lack of community awareness that adds to the threat against the mental health status of many students. [6] To add to the concern, most of the states in USA have scored poorly in the mental health report i.e. out of all 51 states, a total of 45 states scored either a C, D or F, but none scored an A.
In today’s society there is a greater awareness of mental illnesses. With this greater awareness one might assume that there would be a substantial increase in government involvement or funding in the area of mental illness treatment. Unfortunately this isn’t the case in the U.S. today. There are hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness that go untreated. These potential patients go untreated for many reasons. These reasons are discussed in the Time article “Mental Health Reform: What Would it Really Take.
Mental Health is a common topic in all agenda’s in the United States. It is currently looked at broadly across all segments of health; in fact, over the years there have been multiple approaches to addressing the needs of the population affected by lack of mental health or that have prominent mental health disorders. Over the past century the United States has been especially concerned about the mental health problems of our children and youth (Tuma, 1989). Worldwide 10-20% of children and adolescents experience mental disorders (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). This topic has been so important to the extent that as early as 1909, the white house conference on children recommended new programs to care for mentally disturbed children (Tuma, 1989), but the process seems to continue to be in planning phases with some advancement in mental health policies for children. One hundred years later, the surgeon general national agenda for children’s health, the president’s new freedom commission on mental health and the American Psychological Association are all pushing efforts to address children’s mental health issues (Odar et al, 2013). More so, the stakeholders mentioned above agree on the fact that there is a large gap between the mental health needs of children and the supports and services that are available to meet those needs (Tolan and Dodge, 2005). However, in spite of many different approaches Tolan and Dodge (2005) state that “Children’s mental health continues to be neglected even with growing scientific evidence of the importance of mental health in children’s development” this is occurring specially within the primary developmental systems such as pediatric care and school, and of efficacy of interventions for chil...
The importance of mental health and its effect on individuals has been underestimated. The stigma and discrimination of those affected by mental disorders still exists today. The advancing technology and thorough research are slowly moving towards a less discriminating and better understanding of mental health. More and more patients especially children and adolescents are being diagnosed with different mental disorders. Not enough programs and grants are given to screen and protect children from developing mental illness conditions. In order to maintain mental health’s importance and decrease the stigma associated with it, further education, prevention, and promotion is necessary.
Wadhwani, Sudha. Reaching Out to Diverse Students with Mental Health Services. 20 December 2010. Web. 16 November 2013.
The development of mental health policy has gone through many changes in the course of the twentieth century. Today, mental health policy is totally different from the policy hundreds of years ago. Because of this, it is important to emphasize the fact that mental health policy has shifted from the indifference and isolation of people with mental illness, to the delivery of social services and community integration. In other words, mental health policy has experienced a serious change that has changed the attitude of policy makers, health care professionals, ordinary people, and also to people with a mental illness. Today, people with mental health problems are no longer outsiders as they used to be. Instead they are seen as people who have different needs and social geared towards their integration into the community. The federal government now has a policy that addresses the problems faced by people with mental illness, gives the community a chance to understand these people, and sets a standard in providing mental health services. There are over seventy actions in The Federal Mental Health Action Agenda. “It offers an unprecedented opportunity to fundamentally alter the form and function of the mental health service delivery system in this country to one that puts individuals-adults with mental illnesses, children with emotional disturbances, and family members-at its very core” (The Federal Action Agenda: First Steps. Web. 24 Mar. 2014).
In 1984 Congress began to appropriate funding to aid in the children’s mental health initiative. The present initiative that is in place is guided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration’s Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). The need for reform and interventi...
Currently in today’s society, coming out as gay is easier than admitting to a serious mental problem. This effect puts a burden on teens who suffer from problems and don’t know where to go; which led to the increase of teen suicides as seen in the media. In the average classroom size, about three of the twenty-four students have depression; not mentioning other common disorders such as bipolar disorder, panic disorder, ADHD, conduct disorder, and eating disorders. Without better programs in schools to prevent and inform about mental disorders, the current taboo on them, the bullying of students suffering, and the romanticization of diseases will continue to increase the negative effect mental disorders have on teens.
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.
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Health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ and health promotion is understood as ‘actions that support people to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles and which create supportive living situations or environments for health’. In these definitions it is clearly standard that mental health promotion is an essential component of health promotion. Not only are there complex interconnections between physical and mental health, they share many
Active Promotion of Mental Health in the Workplace Introduction With events such as Bell’s “Let’s Talk” and organizations like Jack.org, mental health has recently become a significant topic of interest of mine. While I have noticed an obvious increase in its awareness, I believe that a lack of resources still does exist for mental health in the workplace. In my opinion, mental health is just an integral to basic human rights as is physical health and it should therefore be equally promoted. This paper will explore the extent to which organizations currently support mental health and suggest ways that stricter regulations and active promotion in the workplace can help companies provide better working environments.