What if someone told you that your child was suffering from a mental health disorder? How would it feel knowing that children and teens are suffering every day simply because they did not have proper emotional support? A mental health crisis is impacting millions of young people today, such as depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders. Therefore, school boards should mandate that schools give weekly mental health assessments and the data saved to track students’ mental well-being. Students who completed the Pew Research Center Survey think this is a better step to reduce poor mental health for the youth.
Mental health is a significant obstacle for the youth. I know I have anxiety about standing in front of a crowd or even a small audience like a classroom. My mind thinks I’m going to make a fool out of myself and cry. I wouldn’t want to know that children are dealing with depression about problems they can’t control or having anxiety because of their peers like me. As we see from the article, “How Mental Health Disorders Affect The Youth” from Youth.gov, it is evident that when students struggle with mental health, it may be “negatively impacting their grades because of poor concentration, distractibility, inability to retain information, poor peer relationships, and aggressive behavior, and they tend to engage in high-risk behaviors including drug and alcohol use and/or suicide attempts, especially those youth who may be significantly depressed because they are shunned or marginalized.” Furthermore, children and youth with mental health disorders may miss as many as 18 to 22 days of school, and up to 14% of youth with mental health disorders receive mostly Ds and Fs. Youth with untreated mental illness also have high rates of absenteeism and tardiness, and the rates of suspension and expulsion of this group are three times higher than their peers. This would mean they could pass away or drop out, but we need our education because without education, how would we know anything or function as adults?
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, young people’s poor mental health issues have skyrocketed up to 40% since the pandemic started, which is very alarming. To support and help reduce young people’s mental health, school boards should make mental health assessments mandatory for all students in schools across the U.S. These assessments can track data on how their mental state is over time. The article “SEL and Mental Health ” from The Casel Foundation highlights that “SEL [social-emotional learning] is an indispensable part of student mental health and wellness, helping to improve attitudes about self and others while decreasing emotional distress and risky behaviors.” More evidence highlighted is that “SEL should be implemented as part of a system of mental wellness support and resources that include promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment.” The article also states, “It is critically important to position evidence-based SEL programming and practices as a universal, strengths-based Tier 1 support to promote the healthy development, resiliency, and well-being of all young people.” These pieces of evidence indicate the rates of mental health can be reduced if students develop their social and emotional skills, especially the ones who need it most.
In conclusion, weekly mental health assessments would summarize how children feel throughout the week. It would naturally help students in schools because it can improve young people’s well-being. All of the data will go to the people who look after students’ mental health and education and ensure that they have the emotional support to learn.
