Young people in the U.S. face numerous challenges that can impact their mental health. While kids are resilient, they can’t typically recognize and advocate for their own needs. Adults in their lives – educators, parents, and caregivers – need to spot the signs that a student might be struggling with mental health challenges and direct them to the proper support. It is essential to combat the stigma surrounding mental health and ensure every adult knows how to identify mental health warning signs and where to direct students for proper care and treatment.
Recognizing the Signs
Recognizing the signs of potential mental health issues in children and adolescents is the first step to providing proper care and treatment. A sign that a student is struggling can include unexplained changes in behavior, noticeable drop in grades, no longer participating in social activities (that they previously enjoyed) and sometimes physical symptoms like migraines and stomachaches are present. Parents, caregivers, and educators should be vigilant and know how to spot these signs and symptoms.
District Recommendations
School districts play a pivotal role in building mental health awareness. Here are some actionable recommendations for districts:
- Create annual professional and parent mental health learning plans, including defined learning objectives and a calendar of events.
- Develop plans for mental health learning that are incorporated into the school calendar including professional development, parent workshops and mental health events.
- Partner with expert organizations with deep domain knowledge in building awareness of mental health-related topics.
- Districts should reach out to organizations such as NAMI, Psych Hub or Mental Health America for free resources and activities related to mental health.
- Ensure strong processes for progress monitoring and measuring impact.
- Develop tools or use existing software to create processes for in-school mental health programs to monitor student progress – including data such as absentee rates, grades, disciplinary actions – and measure results.
- Consider development of a District-Wide MTSS Playbook that focuses on current academic, social-emotional and mental health supports and best-practice standards that address the needs of the whole-child. The Playbook can help with training staff and auditing current programming.
State and Federal Recommendations
- Publish and distribute guidelines and learning objectives for building mental health awareness with educators and parents.
- Create and disseminate statewide or national guidelines with clear learning objectives for building mental health awareness in school districts. States can use the Playbook for Governors developed by the National Governors Association in 2023 as a guide.
- Create federal and state resource libraries of professional and adult learning content that can be used for awareness building.
- Districts need resources for educators and parents to build mental health awareness in their schools. Digital resource libraries with free professional learning content, downloadable activities and posters and other resources would help bridge the gap between good intentions and positive action.
- Create State and Technical Assistance and Professional Development Support for LEA CSMHS Implementation
- Because of the local nature of education and the fragmentation of funding to support CSMHS within SEAs and LEAs, school mental health efforts are often not organized or unified among, or even within, districts in the same state
- Determine progress monitoring plans to measure the impact of awareness building efforts.
- Develop or use existing software to measure and provide data surrounding mental health awareness efforts.
- Provide funding for districts to implement mental health awareness building efforts.
- Districts need funding to support their mental health awareness efforts including Professional Development workshops for educators and parent workshops for parents and caregivers.
Conclusion
As the youth mental health crisis rages on, educators and policymakers must take quick and definitive steps to raise awareness of mental health issues in our schools, our homes, and our communities. Our youth deserve the opportunity to preserve their well-being at a young age, long before problems become insurmountable. By making youth mental health a priority, we can make a real difference in the lives of young people, and every adult, whether a parent, caregiver, or educator, should work together to break the stigma and ensure every child has access to quality mental health care.
“Emotional well-being is not just a personal issue. It affects all of us.”
– Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General
