Question

“The start of many mental health conditions most often occurs in adolescence. Half of individuals living with mental illness experience onset by the age of 14. This number jumps to 75% by the age of 24. One in five youth live with a mental health condition, but less than half of these individuals receive needed services. Undiagnosed, untreated or inadequately treated mental health conditions can affect a student’s ability to learn, grow and develop. Schools provide a unique opportunity to identify and treat mental health conditions by serving students where they already are” (National Alliance On Mental Illness, 2017).

Please post a brief (1-2 paragraph) response to this quote. Do you believe that schools could or should play a significant role in supporting the mental health of students? Why or why not? Additionally, be sure to address the benefits to addressing the mental health needs of children in schools? And what are the challenges?

Answer 1

“The start of many of the mental health conditions most often occcur in adolescence”

I believe, for a child, the most important time for growth and development is till adolescence. This is the time when a person would be developing their groups and their personalities, along with building relationships. When a child begins to develop certain signs of mental illnesses, it would be important for the caregivers or the teachers to be understanding the small signs that a child might be giving that would be hinting towards mental illness.

• The child might seem to be withdrawn or feel sad, wouldn’t engage with friends or in the class and would have a regular feeling of fatigue.
• If the child would be having behaviors that are out of control and if they would be causing harm to themselves or to other people.
• It should be identified if the child has become afraid for no reason or has started to have physical discomfort,
• It has to be identified if the child has been eating in a proper manner or if they would be losing weight constantly.
• The teachers should also be noticing if there is a sudden change in grades, along with not being able to concentrate properly.
• Also, friends at school should be questioned about the interaction of the child along with his friends and if they seem to be normal.

If these signs are identified, the school could take steps at the right time shchthat the child would not enter into a severe mental illness condition. Challenges would be that the child might not be able to open up in the correct manner. Also, the teacher might easily overlook these signs, when there are a number of students in the class.

Advantage would be that the child could be observed in their natural environment and any interventions could be made with the help of peers.