Overcoming Mental Health in Schools
The article “How Should Schools Support Students Experiencing Anxiety and Depression” expresses ways in which schools, specifically in Australia, can do a better job at comforting students dealing with mental health. The article was posted on October 8th, 2018 on studentedge.org. Although the article is almost five years old, I believe it still argues a valid and significant point that is applicable to the educational systems around the globe. The author Tayla Sokolich appears to be from Australia, as she brings forth ideas to the public schools in that specific country. She argues that mental health is not taken seriously in many schools of Australia. There has been a peak in mental health illnesses in teenagers over the years. Some public schools around the world have taken note of this spike and have acted to overcome it in different ways. However, the author is calling for a greater urge for action from the schools in Australia, as suicide is the most common killer of Australians from ages 15–24 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). In this article, it states we can confront this issue by hiring more counselors, have counseling offices somewhere private, and have a quiet classroom with personal space for students having an off day regarding their mental health.
Sokolich presents the significance of the need for support and understanding towards teenagers regarding mental health with data from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. The facts from the credible government source says that “one in seven children and young people experience a mental disorder over the course of a year” (Sokolich). For this reason, kids and teens in schools may need to talk to a counselor, and normally their only access to a professional is at school. The problem with this circumstance is, as the author mentions and testifies of her personal experience, counselors are usually busy with other students and on many occasions, not in office. Tayla Sokolich suggests the solution of having (atleast) two counselors, and having different genders of counselors. For example, young and adolescent girls may feel more inclined to open up to a woman rather than a male counselor who they do not know.
The article’s second suggestion is to make counseling offices more discreet. In the youtube video above, a young American girl defends fellow students in her generation saying students have to advocate for their own mental health when they have never needed to do that before. She also says that there are more suicides now since World War II, and schools have been hiring more counselors, which would be good news to Tayla Sokolich. Similar to the ratio of young Australians battling mental health, the video claims “One in three students report persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, which is up 40% from 2009” (Dawson). This ratio comes from an American study done in 2019, only one year after the article describing Australian schools support for mental health was published. The youtube video supports Sokolich’s suggestion to make school counseling more accessible to students and make them feel more comfortable going into a counselor’s office. The Australian author suggests to public schools that counselor offices should be somewhere private but also easy to reach. This solution encourages students to speak out about their problems without becoming anxious over a peer seeing them attend a counseling session.
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Sokolich’s third suggestion is to have a safe and quiet classroom space for those having a rough mental health day. The Ted Talker Maya Dawson agrees, and states that it makes sense to integrate counseling into a regular classroom setting. Thus, making it less taboo and encourages students to advocate for their own mental health. Sokolich claims that having a counselor pop into this quiet or “bad day” classroom could make a difference and open students up to seeing a counselor without feeling hesitant or ashamed. The classroom could allow for a peace of mind and give a temporary break from the stress of school while also being productive and keeping up with classwork. If this were to become a reality, rules and regulations regarding frequency of visits or capacity of the classroom would have to be made, but the suggestion itself is promising and should be implemented into public schools.
Author Tayla Sokolich, presents that hiring more school counselors of both genders, having counseling offices in a private location, and making available a quiet classroom for students that need personal space of a bad day, could help better support students battling a mental health illness. These ideas have the potential to not only bring more awareness of mental health in Australia and in all countries, but also make it easier for students to access free counseling and professional advice along with professional services. Not only would students feel more comfortable advocating for their mental health, but the high self harm rates in the young generations could go down if the place where they spend most of the week, school, invited them to speak out and seek help regarding their anxiety and depression.
Works Cited
How To Become a School Counselor .
Man Depressed Hoodie — Free Photo on Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/man-depressed-hoodie-unhappy-sad-390341/.
Sokolich, Tayla. “How Should Schools Support Students Experiencing Anxiety and Depression.” Student Edge, 8 Oct. 2018, https://studentedge.org/article/how-should-schools-support-students-battling-anxiety-and-depression.
TedXYouth. Mental Health in Schools: We’Re Doing It Wrong. Performance by Maya Dawson, YouTube, TedxTalks, 13 May 2022, https://youtu.be/5Hkb6SuGR0g. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.
