Promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges
This research is also the first to examine mental health education program effectiveness for students with prior exposure to such information from a teacher. A unique aspect of AIR’s educational programs is that there is always at least one certified therapy dog in attendance for students to interact with after a presentation. These findings are further supported by Wahl et al.’s investigation of Breaking the Silence, with middle school students and Ending the Silence with high school students which found no differences in program impact across gender 15,16. The social isolation, fear, and restricted access to health services, as well as food and housing insecurity brought about by COVID-19 contributed to the increase in mental health concerns for youth. DASH works with schools to strengthen school-based education, health services, school environments, and community connections. While the program has a plan and design in place for scaling, it lacks the necessary resources to implement an effective scale-up based on earlier grassroots youth mental health work.
Use Other Professionals
Teaching blog includes posts from teachers which can be filtered to find information about student and staff mental health. Resources are available for staff, parents and carers to support attendance and mental wellbeing in schools and colleges. Peer support networks for school and college mental health leads (PDF, 187 KB, 3 pages) has further information and a list of nationally available networks.
Getting Started: Steps for Parents and Educators
Additionally, schools offer specialized support groups addressing specific concerns like anxiety management, grief counseling, and social skills development. Crisis intervention services are available for immediate assistance during emotional emergencies, while prevention programs focus on building resilience and emotional awareness. Group counseling sessions provide peer support and help students develop essential coping skills while learning from shared experiences.
Stigma is often cited as a reason for not seeking mental health treatment or fullyparticipating in it. Thereasons may be many, such as the lack of personnel for such activities and a conflict forthe school across the different roles it sets for itself. The Indian mental health system has an acute shortage of trained mental healthprofessionals to deal even with severe mental illness. Itrecommends that there is an acute need to work on the existing setup and available resourcesby enriching Health departments and school contact tracing SMH activities.
As of 2018–2019, 1 in 7 children aged 3–17 (13%) in the United States had a diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition. School-level data were analyzed by grade level (middle school or high school) and date (pre-, intra-, or post-COVID-19). A comparison of pre- and post-scores demonstrated statistically significant gains in program content.
- These services will include the screening, evaluation, and monitoring of students’ mental well-being, as well as mental health first aid, crisis response, and referral systems.
- Psychological first aid training supports children and young people’s mental health during emergencies and crisis situations.
- Provide wellness classes such as yoga and meditation a few times a month to gauge students’ and staff’s interest.
- In school-based intervention research, mechanisms typically include specific student psychological, behavioral, or interpersonal processes, intervention skill use, or teacher adherence to a classroom-based intervention.