Mental health is something that is very important and that most high schoolers struggle with. Even though there is school counseling and advisory to help kids with mental health issues, do schools talk about mental health enough? And why is it important to talk about it? 

According to rtor.org,  schools must understand the value of teaching mental health. Children and adolescents do better when mental and physical health are taught concurrently. Numerous aspects of students’ lives, such as their interactions with others and the use of drugs and alcohol, are impacted by their mental health. Also, according to Nystrom associates, understanding the symptoms and indicators is one strategy for battling mental illness. Students will be better able to recognize problems with their friends and with themselves if they are taught about mental health in school. Teachers will be better able to tell if a student is having difficulties and help them through those difficulties. An article from ACMH talks about how it is crucial to address students’ mental health issues in the classroom. A diagnosable emotional, behavioral, or mental health illness affects one in five children and teens, and one in ten young people experience a mental health issue that is serious enough to limit their ability to function at home, school, or in the community. Even though so many children between the ages of six and seventeen are affected by mental illness, estimates suggest that at least half of them—and some even go as high as 80%—do not receive the necessary mental health care. it is important to be able to identify and support children’s mental health in schools. Common mental health issues frequently start during childhood and youth. Early detection and intervention techniques are effective. They may aid in enhancing resiliency and the ability to succeed in school and life.

A sophomore at Pentucket said they feel like mental health is talked about enough in school and if not why should teachers start? They said, “I feel like mental health is not talked enough about and even though I do not struggle with mental health issues myself, important people in my life do and they struggle with them at school and feel like they can not talk to counselors or most people because they might be afraid to express how they feel.” 

The next interviewee is a therapist that helps out kids with mental health struggles. She said that she feels mental health is not emphasized enough in schools. She also stated that mental health is important for teens to talk about and be more comfortable sharing with teachers and fellow students that might be experiencing the same thing. She felt like schools do not talk about mental health enough and that some kids might find it “embarrassing” to have a therapist and talk about their feelings since it was not vocalized enough in their core years of learning. 

Mental health is something that a lot of people struggle with, which is why it is important to teach that in the early years of school. It is very hard to focus on school or anything when you are not mentally okay.  Mental health should always be taken seriously in all environments whether it is work, school, or at home which is why schools should try to teach more than just the disorders and what they involve so kids can identify mental health sooner than later.