Treatment

Prevention

Education

Promotion

Approximately 1 in 6 teenagers reported having suicidal thoughts in 2017. According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10-to 24 year-olds. However, schools are afraid to talk about it because they don't know how to approach it or what to do. We need to distigmatize it in order to work towards prevention.

In schools, several prevention efforts have been successful in addressing risk factors, including interventions to decrease substance misuse in adolescents who score highly on certain personality measures, suggesting an increased risk of problems with substance misuse

Schools with social-emotional learning programs had an average increase of 11–17 percentile points on standardized tests compared with scores from non-intervention schools. This shows the academic benefits of mental health promotion in schools because students perform better when receiving emotional support.

If every school were to promote and foster good mental health, it would cause a ripple effect across the entire nation. The small things that we do and the way that we interact with others is what determines how people feel.

Schools should have multidisciplinary student-support teams that include school nurses, school personnel, mental health consultants, and school physicians to review and plan evaluations and intervention strategies for students experiencing problems at school or otherwise identified as having potential mental health problems.

Staff employed at schools are limited by school policies that restrict the type of services that they can provide, reducing their ability to meet specific needs or serve specific students. Even with the proven positive effect of the use of school resources, many schools still rely heavily on community mental health services that are administratively and geographically outside the school system.

Schools in America teach students about physical health, nutritional health, and financial health(budgeting). However, schools have not recognized the importance of teaching about mental health. This gap in curriculum has a huge impact on society for generations to come. Poor mental health, depression, and anxiety affect the way students behave, interact in their communities, and make connections with others.

It is important to have mental health teacher training, because one of the most difficult elements of providing support is not knowing how. Educating teachers on how to support the mental health of their students, and themselves is an essential part of bettering mental health as a whole.