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"Kids who suffer from mental health disorders inevitably miss out on opportunities for learning and building relationships."
- David Anderson, expert on schools and mental health

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Implementing mental health services in schools

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Implementing mental health services in schools

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My op-ed is about bringing more awareness to students who struggle with their mental health and how schools can help them struggle less because there are a lot of people who struggle out there, but don't know how to ask for help or can't get help outside of school. I am most proud of the highlighted part because I feel that it is a good introduction and it tells the reader why this topic is important.

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Why Should Schools Provide Mental Health Resources to Students?

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Why Should Schools Provide Mental Health Resources to Students?

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Every school day there are students who go to school and struggle to do their best in school.  A lot of people can see them as lazy (which they are not) however they are putting in the most amount of effort they can.  It turns out that this situation is common amongst students.  If schools were to provide mental health services to students, those same students who struggle would be greatly benefited.

A common situation amongst students who are mentally ill is having a hard time with school.  Students with mental illnesses can struggle a lot during school hours and after while doing homework.  Whether that be with motivation or with not understanding something or having a hard time paying attention or they are feeling anxious because of something.

In an article by District Administration by Tim Goral, two administrators were interviewed and told us that the most common mental illness amongst students is anxiety.  Lawson thinks that it is caused by the city’s community since it is a high-performing city and has a lot of successful people which can cause students to feel pressured.  Beresford said that anxiety and stress are the top issues because people are constantly bombarded with bad news and personal problems from many different sources.  This indicates that stress and anxiety can come from school, but it can also come from personal problems and bad news that people are constantly getting which can make it hard to get a break from the stress.  If schools were to provide mental health resources, it can help students to lower their stress levels and find ways to help them when they are feeling stressed.

One may be surprised to learn that counselors weren’t as qualified for dealing with mentally health.  “Although many school counselors may feel adequately trained to deal with the personal, social, and psychological needs of their students and in some cases expect that is how they will spend their time, in reality school districts are working collaboratively with non-school MHPs to respond to the mental health needs of students.”(Brown).  This suggests that schools getting other mental health resources would help because some school counselors aren’t as qualified or aren’t able to give the same quality support that a student might need.  If schools were to get the resource of non-school mental health professionals students would be able to get the best quality support that they can provide because school counselors also have other aspects to their job than just focusing on their students mental health, so if other non-school MHPs were to help they would be able to get help from someone whose main focus is mental health.

Although I believe that schools should support students mental health, others believe that schools should not support students mental health because it is too expensive.  Issues and Controversies points out that mental health services can be very expensive even with insurance.  This is true, however, there are ways for schools to support their students’ mental health that doesn’t require payment like more frequent guidance checkups and adding mental health to the curriculum.

Also, states could help their schools to provide resources.  Curriculum review talks about how Wisconsin is giving money to schools, so then schools are able to afford providing mental health services to their students’  and the schools would still have money in their budget for other necessities.  If states were to provide money to schools for mental health services, students would be able to use the resources and the schools would be able to provide the resources without losing too much money that would have been used for other necessities.   To find out more I conducted an interview.  The interviewee mentioned “I think that if they really took the time to hear what students needed and not just want they want to do for people, everything would probably be a bit”(Sladek).  This makes it clear that schools aren’t paying enough attention and aren’t giving their best interest in students who are struggling and it can affect how well and how fast students are able to get better.  They also point out that schools can help students by just listening to students which doesn’t cost any money.  If schools were to do this they would be able to help students and not lose any money.

In the end, students would be greatly benefited by getting resources through schools and there are ways that don’t cost money in order to provide them.  The resources can also teach students how to recognize if someone is struggling and how to help them so they can get better.