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some barriers may include that schools believe that mental health is not an issue that should be taught in school, not in the budget or time.
possibly educate the teachers, put into another classes curriculum

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"The average wait for effective treatment is 10 years
It can take a decade for many young people to receive help after showing first symptoms."
https://www.mqmentalhealth.org/posts/12-statistics
"fewer than 7% sought treatment for social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention deficit disorder within the first year."
Some do not realize the long term effects
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-prevalence-and-treatment-of-mental-illness-today

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"Around 8.6% of all of the youth in America have severe depression, however a staggering 76% of those affected –that’s around 1.6 million kids– have received inadequate, or simply zero treatment for it at all."
If a student had taken a class they would have been able to identify their deteriorating mental health early on.
http://highschool.latimes.com/south-torrance-high-school/opinion-why-we-need-to-talk-about-mental-health-in-schools/
"Over the past 25 years, depression and anxiety amongst teenagers in the U.K. has increased by 70%. This pattern is repeated across the developed world, and is the result of a cocktail of pressures, pressures that result in 10% of under 18-year-olds in America being dependent on mental health medication."
Pressure is one of the causes of increase in mental health issues
https://www.nationofchange.org/2018/07/16/education-and-the-mental-health-epidemic/

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the importance of mental health should be taught in schools to ensure that students are able to identify poor mental health not only in themselves and those around them. Students should be taught about the different kinds of mental illnesses and what poor mental health looks and maybe feels like.

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Across the western world June is exam time; in Britain, written tests taken in halls of silence and tension have triggered a mini-epidemic of anxiety rooted conditions. Pupils have reported mental exhaustion, panic attacks, crying, nosebleeds, sleepless nights, hair loss and outbreaks of acne.

Over the past 25 years, depression and anxiety amongst teenagers in the U.K. has increased by 70%. This pattern is repeated across the developed world, and is the result of a cocktail of pressures, pressures that result in 10% of under 18-year-olds in America being dependent on mental health medication.

In parts of Asia things are just as bad or worse: the pressure to achieve high marks in exams in Hong Kong is driving some students to suicide: "71 students took their lives between 2013 and 2016," reports The South China Morning Post. In Singapore, which produces children who excel in standardized tests, an 11-year-old jumped to his death from the 17th floor of an apartment building in 2016 because he was afraid to tell his parents his exam results. The inquest heard that the boy's parents relentlessly pushed him to achieve at school: his mother would cane him for every mark he received under 70%. In 2015 a record 27 suicides were reported amongst children between 10 and 19, which was double the previous year's total.

Suicide or attempted suicide is a raw scream revealing the internal agony a child is living with; pain that he/she feels suffocated by, and unable to openly acknowledge. In most cases children don't kill themselves, they just become ill, some, chronically. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that neuropsychiatric conditions are the primary cause of disability in under 25-year-olds worldwide and says that globally between 10% and 20% "of children and adolescents experience mental disorders," feeding what are often long-term conditions. Research shows that 75% of all mental health issues begin before a person reaches 18, with 50% taking root before age 15.

Engines of conformity

There are various interconnected reasons for this mental health epidemic; the burden to conform and the relentless pressure to succeed are primary causes and are present throughout institutionalized education. For many young people education has become a bi-word for competition and anxiety, school or university a place where uniformity is demanded and individuality denied: a hostile place in which pressure and stress dominate.

Despite the best efforts of teachers, many of whom are doing wonderful work, the goal of academic institutions in many countries has been reduced to passing exams and achieving good-to-high grades. This is anathema to what education ought to be. At the heart of education should be the aim of creating happy human beings free from fear. This requires establishing environments that allows an individual to discover innate talents, to explore him/herself and slowly, perhaps clumsily, give expression to that; a stimulating, nurturing space where mistakes can be made, failure allowed, independent thinking fostered and responsibility for society and the natural environment engendered.

Like all aspects of contemporary life, education has been tainted by the values of a particular approach to life, a materialistic methodology that fosters negative tendencies instead of feeding the good and liberating the spirit. Competition is encouraged instead of cooperation, placing people in opposition to one another, cultivating division instead of unity. Individual success is championed at the expense of group well-being and life is reduced to a battleground ruled by desire and the pursuit of pleasure.

The focus within this paradigm of misery is on material success and the accumulation of status and things. Hedonism is sold as the source of all happiness, feeding perpetual discontent. It is an extremely narrow approach to life that denies mystery and wonder, pours cynicism on the miraculous and attempts to crush self-investigation and silence opposition.

Whilst the majority of humanity suffer and struggle to live healthy fulfilling lives within this mode of living, there are those who, economically at least, profit handsomely. As a result, and failing to recognize that they too are trapped, they do everything to maintain it; they are the wealthy and powerful, the 'ruling elite'. Money begets power and political influence under the pervading paradigm; such influence is used to shape (and draft) government policies that strengthen systems, which maintain the existing unhealthy order.

To uphold the status quo, freedom of thought and true individuality is curtailed, social conformity insisted upon. The major tools of conditioning are the media, which is commonly owned by corporations or controlled by governments, organized religion, and education. The policies of schools and colleges are set by central government, and, consistent with the pervasive ideology politicians ensure that conformity and competition are built into the working methodology.

Students are set in competition with one another, with established standards and with themselves, and are regularly forced to sit written examinations to evaluate how much they can remember or know, about any particular subject. Taking exams dictates the passage of a child's education and establishes the benchmark against which young people are judged, and by extension often judge themselves. Using tests as a way of assessing a persons abilities and knowledge is archaic; sitting exams exerts colossal pressure, and although some may be able to cope and 'do well' the majority feel suffocated.

In Britain, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) relates that in 2016/17 Childline delivered "3,135 counseling sessions on exam stress - a rise of 11% over the past 2 years." Children aged between 12 and 18 reported that exam stress was causing "depression and anxiety, panic attacks, low-self-esteem, self harming and suicidal thoughts." This pattern is common in many developed and developing countries, where ideologically driven corporate governments obsessed with trade, continue to pursue methods, that are, by design, detrimental to the well being of children.

Instead of policies rooted in competition, cooperation and sharing need to be encouraged in all aspects of education and standardized exams consigned to the past. The educational environment needs to be one in which children are encouraged to support each other, to share their own particular gifts with the group and build a sense of social responsibility. Many teachers naturally employ such inclusive methods, but working within divisive systems, which promote individual success, conformity and competition, their efforts are often frustrated.

An alternative way

A more enlightened approach to education is found in Finland. Here, children don't start school until they are seven, there is no streaming or selection in schools, so children of varying abilities work side by side, no homework is set, school holidays are long and there is only one standardized test, administered in the final year of high school. The result is happier children than in countries where testing, homework, selection and competition reign supreme. Not only are children happier (according to the World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world), they achieve higher academic marks than students in many other countries; according to The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) organized annually by the OECD, Finland ranks fourth for reading and 5th for Math in the world; 93% of students graduate from High School, compared to 78% in Canada and 75% in America.

Teachers in Finland are well qualified - all have a Master's Degree - and are highly valued. They are not dictated to by misguided politicians who come and go, but are trusted to do their job independently, and the country has a long-term approach to education policy, which "means plans remain in place for a significant amount of time, giving them a chance to work, " says, Russell Hobby, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers.

An education system is part of a societies overall approach to living. As well as being a happy place to live and having a relaxed attitude to education, Finland has some of the lowest levels of wealth and income inequality in the world and the highest level of community trust. In contrast, Britain, USA, Singapore and Hong Kong have some of the highest levels of inequality. The Finland education system is inseparable from the culture, which it serves. Saku Tuominen, director of the HundrEd project says that Finland has "a 'socially cohesive', equitable and efficient society, and it gets a consistently reliable school system to match."

Systems of education built around the ideals of the market that use competition, selection and examinations are contributing to a collective atmosphere of division, injustice and anxiety. Such methodologies need to be fundamentally changed, replaced by creative environments in which children and young adults can simply be, without pressure to achieve or become anything in particular. In such an atmosphere, true intelligence, which is beyond the limitations of knowledge, can flower.

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Education and the mental health epidemic

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Across the western world June is exam time; in Britain, written tests taken in halls of silence and tension have triggered a mini-epidemic of anxiety rooted conditions. Pupils have reported mental exhaustion, panic attacks, crying, nosebleeds, sleepless nights, hair loss and outbreaks of acne.

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When Monica was told she should consider taking her 2-year-old son to a psychiatrist, her first reaction was that maybe her pediatrician was the one in need of a shrink.

Thirty years ago, most psychiatrists would have agreed with her, but times change.

According to the Office of the Surgeon General, one in 10 children under the age of 18 "suffer from mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment."

The National Institute of Mental Health, in its fact sheet for physicians Depression in Children and Adolescents, cited studies that found as many as 2.5 percent of children and 8.3 percent of teenagers suffer from depression.

Some psychiatrists say those numbers may even be conservative, suggesting that as many as one in five children will go through extended periods when they show the symptoms of significant emotional problems by the time they turn 18.

And those periods can begin surprisingly early, some psychiatrists say.

The subject is still controversial, but most child psychiatrists ABCNEWS.com talked to agreed that at least some precursors of serious depression can appear in children as young as 2 years old. Some said that children that young can in fact suffer from full-blown depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Over the past 30 years there's been a general movement towards recognizing that children can suffer from serious psychiatric illnesses," said Dr. Jay Reeve, a clinical psychologist with 17 years experience who is currently the senior psychologist on the Children's Inpatient Unit at Bradley Hospital, a pediatric psychiatric hospital in East Providence, R.I.

He said it shouldn't really come as a surprise that children are vulnerable to emotional problems as serious as adults, because children have so little control over the world they live in, and especially when they are very young and cannot really understand why things happen.

"You've got a person 2 feet tall and vulnerable to anything the big people want to do," he said. "We see kids who are suffering from pretty clear signs of depression every day. I think you're seeing professionals and society becoming more comfortable with saying that kids suffer from these illnesses."

While some psychiatrists said that factors such as the rising number of families in which both parents work, violence in neighborhoods and the mobility of families may all have contributed over recent decades to more instability in young childrens' lives that in some cases might result in serious emotional problems, most said they do not believe that there has been any real growth in the number of children who suffer these problems.

Instead, it is that growing "comfort" with making the diagnosis that accounts for what seems like an increase in the number of disturbed kids in America, they say.

As with some types of cancer, it may not be that there is a rise in the number of children affected, only an increase in the ability to recognize it and call it by its proper name, said Neal Ryan, a professor of child and adolescent psychology at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in depression and anxiety disorders.

Searching for an Answer

For Monica, "comfortable" may not be the word to describe how she feels about saying her 2-year-old could need a psychiatrist, but when she and her husband considered the alternative, they realized they had to try anything they could.

They decided they could not let their son go on with behavioral problems that include uncontrollable tantrums when he is anywhere with more than just a few people, refusal to interact at all with other children, wearing socks on his hands and a period of eight months when they could not take him out of the house at all because of the tantrums he threw.

Still, she said she has a hard time imagining how a psychiatrist is going to be able to learn anything from her son, much less begin to help him.

"He's talking, but they can't talk to him the way they would talk to me, so I'm wondering how this is going to work," she said. "I personally think that he is very young to go to a psychiatrist, but we have tried every other avenue for help."

Psychiatrists do not expect to be able to speak to a child the way they can speak to an adult, though, and have developed different strategies to try to understand the nature of a youngster's problem.

The difficulty is not as pronounced with teenagers, but with elementary school age children, language is not always the best way into a youngster's thoughts and feelings, psychiatrists say, and with toddlers, simply talking reveals very little.

"Certainly we don't have them lay on the couch and tell us about their dreams," said Dr. Chistopher Peterson, an assistant professor in psychology at Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

From Skeptic to Advocate

One alternative is play therapy, in which a therapist allows the child to play - either with the therapist involved or with the therapist simply as an observer. Either way, the therapist watches the kind of games chosen, the story lines, what happens, and over a period of time is able to draw conclusions from the patterns that emerge from the games.

"I sat in on the first few sessions and was able to see how it worked," said Rachel, a woman whose adopted daughter has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. "The therapist had so much insight into things I would have overlooked, how she would play with her dolls. Most of it is free play, but there is tremendous observation by the therapist, identifying emotions."

She said that in the program her daughter is in, the therapists also meet with the childrens' parents weekly to discuss what happens in the home, asking probing questions about the child's behavior and interactions with others.

It has made a difference, at least for her daughter.

"I'm now an advocate," she said.

More Than the 'Terrible Twos'

Like most parents who fear their child may have an emotional or mental disorder that requires psychiatric care, Rachel did not immediately find doctors who seemed to understand what was going on.

The first step was finding someone who recognized that what the little girl was suffering was more than the "terrible twos." It was when she had a developmental evaluation of the girl done that she first heard about post-traumatic stress disorder, but even then, the answer offered wasn't the one she was looking for.

"They told me, 'We can medicate her if it would make it easier for you,'" she said. "I can't tell you how insulting that is to me, that a doctor could suggest or that a parent could medicate a child just to make it easier for them. That was a frightening idea. And it was never presented that that would help her."

The doctors that ABCNEWS spoke to all said that medications should only be used to help the child, and should only be used in conjunction with a program of therapy.

"What I believe the best meds [medications] are is strong relationships in your life, with your family and your friends and strong confidence in yourself and your ability to do things well," said Dr. John Sargent, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Ben Taub Hospital in Houston. "So what I want to do is use my meds to make those meds work."

Changing the Chemistry

Medications are a sore issue with many families, who believe that their children have been unfairly labeled as suffering from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and are required by school districts or day care providers to take drugs such as Ritalin.

Studies - Reeve called them "voluminous" - have shown that if a child is properly diagnosed with ADHD, certain medications can help the child not only learn while under the effects of the drug, but also learn to focus so that he can eventually study and succeed without the drug.

The same is true for some medications for depression and other emotional disorders that can affect children, psychiatrists say.

Especially among young children, a large contributing factor to depression can be heredity, meaning that their condition may begin in their brain chemistry, and medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors work to change brain chemistry.

But medications are not the only way to make these changes.

"Psychotherapy can adjust the biochemistry as well," Reeve said.

A 'Stage' or Something More?

Proper diagnosis and treatment are both extremely problematic when it comes to young children, psychiatrists say.

The problem goes back to what Reeve said: That until recently it was not accepted that very young children could suffer such problems, and while more and more psychologists and psychiatrists may now take childhood mental and emotional disorders seriously, they say that too many primary care physicians are not trained to recognize the symptoms.

"Unfortunately, a lot of primary care professionals will be inclined to put parents off with 'they'll grow out of it,'" Peterson said.

Sargent said that he gives most "stages" a child might be said to be going through a month.

"But if a kid is alienating friends, you don't want that going on more than a month," he said. "If his grades are dropping, you don't want that going on for more than a month or two. I would say to a kid, 'Hey, let's get back involved in things,' and if that works, fine. If it doesn't, then I want people to come get some help. Then you eliminate some of the lifetime problems that can result from this."

If a child has a serious problem, whether it is depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder or any other mental or emotional illness, getting the proper treatment can mean getting them back on track for a normal life, he said.

"I would much rather treat a problem in a 3-, 4- or 5-year-old in the first six months of it starting, rather than in a 13- or 14-year-old, when it's been around for 10 years," he said. "A lot of problems that kids face we can prevent if we can start treatment early."

Devastating Effects

Because these problems manifest themselves in so many different ways, their effect on a youngster can be devastating, psychiatrists say.

The behavioral problems they cause, such as aggressiveness, withdrawal or uncontrollable tantrums, can result in a child being labeled a problem not only by day care or school officials, but by their peers. Once those labels are established, they can be difficult to remove, and they can reinforce the child's emotional problem.

They can also result in eating and sleeping disorders that can stunt physical and mental development, putting them out of step with their peers.

"To be diagnosable, you can't just have symptoms, you have to have trouble functioning in your life," Sargent said. "The symptoms create difficulties that worsen the problem."

Treatments may vary from child to child, depending on his or her individual problem and situation, but psychiatrists agree that there is one constant - the whole family must be involved.

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When Monica was told she should consider taking her 2-year-old son to a psychiatrist, her first reaction was that maybe her pediatrician was the one in need of a shrink. Thirty years ago, most psychiatrists would have agreed with her, but times change. According to the Office of the Surgeon...

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Part One in an NPR Ed series on mental health in schools.
You might call it a silent epidemic.

Up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder in a given year.

So in a school classroom of 25 students, five of them may be struggling with the same issues many adults deal with: depression, anxiety, substance abuse.

And yet most children - nearly 80 percent - who need mental health services won't get them.

Whether treated or not, the children do go to school. And the problems they face can tie into major problems found in schools: chronic absence, low achievement, disruptive behavior and dropping out.

Experts say schools could play a role in identifying students with problems and helping them succeed. Yet it's a role many schools are not prepared for.

Educators face the simple fact that, often because of a lack of resources, there just aren't enough people to tackle the job. And the ones who are working on it are often drowning in huge caseloads. Kids in need can fall through the cracks.
"No one ever asked me"
Katie is one of those kids.

She's 18 now. Back when she was 8, she had to transfer to a different school in Prince George's County, Md., in the middle of the year.

"At recess, I didn't have friends to play with," she recalls. "I would make an excuse to stay inside with the teachers and finish extra work or do extra credit."

We're not using Katie's last name to protect her privacy. She's been diagnosed with bulimia and depression.

She says that in the span of a few months, she went from honor roll to failing. She put on weight; other kids called her "fat." She began cutting herself with a razor every day. And she missed a ton of school.

"I felt like every single day was a bad day," she says. "I felt like nobody wanted to help me."

Katie says teachers acted like she didn't care about her schoolwork. "I was so invisible to them."

Every year of high school, she says, was "horrible." She told her therapist she wanted to die and was admitted into the hospital.

During all this time, she says, not a single principal or teacher or counselor ever asked her one simple question: "What's wrong?"

If someone had asked, she says, she would have told them.
Who should have asked?
We talked to educators, advocates, teachers and parents across the country. Here's what they say a comprehensive approach to mental health and education would look like.
The family
The role: The first place to spot trouble is in the home, whether that trouble is substance abuse, slipping grades or a child who sleeps too much. Adults at home - parents, siblings, other relatives - are often the first to notice something going on.

The reality: Many families do not know what to look for. Sometimes a serious problem can be overlooked as "just a phase." But it's those sudden changes - angry outbursts, declining grades, changes in sleeping or eating - that can signal problems. When something unusual crops up, families can keep in close touch with the school.
The teacher
The role: During the week, many students see their teachers even more than their own families. Teachers are in a prime spot to notice changes in behavior. They read essays, see how students relate with other kids and notice when they aren't paying attention.

The reality: Teachers already have a ton on their plates. They're pressured to get test scores up, on top of preparing lessons and grading assignments. Plus, many teachers receive minimal training in mental health issues. But when they do see something concerning, they can raise a flag.
The social worker
The role: Social workers act like a bridge. If teachers come to them with a concern - maybe a child is acting withdrawn - one of the first things they'll do is call home. They see each child through the lens of their family, school and community. They might learn that a family is going through a divorce or homelessness.

The reality: There aren't enough of them. According to one model, every school should have one social worker for every 250 students. The reality is that in some schools, social workers are responsible for many more.
The counselor
The role: In some schools, counselors focus solely on academics: helping students pick classes and apply to college. But in others, they also act a lot like social workers, serving as a link to families and working with students who need support.

The reality: Like school social workers, there just aren't enough counselors. On average nationwide, each counselor is responsible for nearly 500 students. The American School Counselor Association recommends a caseload nearly half that size.
The special education teacher
The Role: Special education teachers may start working with students when a mental health problem affects the ability to do school work. They are primarily responsible for working on academic skills.

The reality: Again, there aren't enough of them. Nearly every state has reported a shortage of special education teachers. Half of all school districts say they have trouble recruiting highly qualified candidates.
The school psychologist
The Role: Here's one job that, on paper, is truly dedicated to student mental health. School psychologists are key players when it comes to crisis intervention and can refer students to outside help, such as a psychiatrist.

The reality: If you sense a pattern here, you're right. In the U.S., there is just one school psychologist for every 1,400 students, according to the most recent data available from the National Association of School Psychologists.
The school nurse
The role: Most any school nurse will tell you, physical and mental health are tough to separate. That puts nurses in a prime spot to catch problems early. For example: A kid who comes into the nurse's office a lot, complaining of headaches or stomach problems? That could be a sign of anxiety, a strategy to avoid a bully, or a sign of troubles at home.

The reality: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least one nurse for every 750 students, but the actual ratio across the country can be much higher.
The principal
The role: As the top dogs in schools, principals make the big decisions about priorities. They can bring in social-emotional, anti-bullying and suicide-prevention programs.

The reality: Principals also have a lot on their plates: the day-to-day management of student behavior, school culture and teacher support.
Getting help, and "excited for life"
Katie says things started to turn around for her when she met a nurse at the Children's National Health System in Washington, D.C., who finally showed interest in what was wrong.

Now, she's begun college and wants to be a pediatric nurse.

"I'm doing a lot better now" she says. " Obviously, I mean, I'm a lot happier. I'm excited for school. I'm excited to graduate. I'm excited for life."

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Mental Health In Schools: A Hidden Crisis Affecting Millions Of Students

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An estimated 20 percent of children show signs or symptoms of a mental health problem. It's a destructive force in schools, but most educators don't have the training or resources to help.