The Importance Of Mental Health: There Is Shame And Misunderstanding Where There Should’ve Been Acceptance And Support

Seasoned Rubs of grilling meat or veggies.

Fill small tins withthis great ranch dip mix and let your kids decorate them with stickers.

So that’s a great gift that can be used throughout the year and won’t go bad in your cupboard! Statistics are well documented.

We know that without some sort of intervention, youth with untreated mental health problems are more going to experience academic failure, become involved with the criminal justice system, abuse substances, or fall victim to suicide.

In consonance with the National Institute of Mental Health, as a matter of fact, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for youth ages 1524″. Examples include stress, anxiety, bullying, family problems, depression, a learning disability, and alcohol and substance abuse. America, with 1 5 out children and adolescents suffering from some sort of mental illness. Recognizing Mental Health Month every May gives us an opportunity to raise awareness, rethink the misperceptions around mental illness, and recognize the mental health needs that we all share.

Look, there’s shame and misunderstanding where there gonna be acceptance and support.

We have an opportunity to change the conversation about mental health and reduce stigma and discrimination.

For their children. Not merely for themselves. She closely follows federal education and mental health policy, and increases awareness and support for services that promote social emotional development and resilience in youth. She sings in a progressive rock cover band with neighbors and fellow PTA parents, when she’s not juggling her work and her own three children. She is passionate about addressing children’s mental health and behavioral needs as an effective means of improving student academic achievement and potential for life success.

Libby Nealis is a senior program coordinator at NEA Healthy Futures. Check our ABC Guide -Addressing Behavior Challenges! Whenever reducing stigma, and facilitating better referral and access to needed mental health services, it’s imperative that we recognize the important role schools can play in addressing the mental health needs of our nation’s youth. We have the opportunity to refocus our schools on the needs of the child and prioritize a positive and supportive school environment that fosters improved learning. States must also consider at least one school indicator quality and student support, like school climate and chronic absenteeism, in their measures of accountability. Furthermore, the time to get involved is now.

Then, we have come upon an era where federal education statute has opened the door for states and districts to design and collaborate on their own local accountability initiatives and priorities together. Basically the newly authorized Every Student Succeeds Act has granted SEAs and LEAs this flexibility conforming to some ‘well rounded’ parameters, including engagement of a cross disciplinary team of education, community, and government stakeholders in plan development and implementation. Learn what solutions are offered by schools, and obtain resources including mental health screenings and the Medicaid free care rule.

Be sure to join NEA edCommunities for a webinar exploring Mental Illness and Its Alarming Effects on Children on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 from 00 PM EDT to 00 PM EDT.

Learn strategies for improving children’s mental health, the effects of social media, school violence and teen suicide prevention.

That said, this webinar, facilitated by NEA edCommunities’ Suzie Gannett, will cover pics like common mental health problems in students, suicide prevention, and the effects of bullying on mental health. All educators, ESP, SISP, parents, mental health professionals and community members are welcome. Have you heard about something like this before? Hear how student learning is affected by mental health problems. Adequate staffing of specialized instructional support personnel, identification and proper referral for mental health and social services, and purposeful coordination with other family and child serving entities must become the norm for our schools. It needs an organized community school effort to maximize the limited resources and coordinate school district, county, and state agencies to come gether for collective impact and collaborative service delivery.

It should take a village.

We can do better.

The actual question is. Can one teacher do it by him or herself? Schools offer an ideal context for prevention, intervention, positive development, and regular communication between school and families. Absolutely not. School health and student support services are critical components of a comprehensive approach to safe and successful schools. There was great advancements in neuropsychological research and neuroimaging that have improved our understanding of how our experiences affect brain chemistry and development.

Conversation around children’s mental health needs was growing for years. When physical and physiological changes add to the chemistry of ongoing brain development, there now is a general understanding that mental health problems and mental illnesses have their roots in childhood. Particularly in adolescence. While acting out, outbursts of anger, and what has typically been referred to as willful defiance, often these behaviors manifest themselves as misbehaviors. Children often spend more waking hours among school employees than they spend with their family members. Mostly there’s now clear scientific research supporting what educators have known all along -the environment surrounding where children live and the experiences they bring with them into the classroom greatly affect their learning once they enter the schoolhouse doors.

What really being that they either can’t afford care, lack access, do not know anyone they can turn to for help, or are so embarrassed and ashamed to even ask for help.