By Destiny Cole | Opinion
Our nation is facing a mental health crisis like we’ve never seen before. Dealing with psychological pressures from every angle, people of all ages are experiencing record breaking levels of depression, anxiety, and other mental health illnesses. So much so that suicide was the second leading cause of death in people ages 10-24. In a time where our country’s children are in crisis, we should be doing everything in our power to make sure that they get the help they so clearly need. The best way to do this is to put trained mental health professionals in schools and universities across the country.
In a study done by the National Center for Children in Poverty, researchers Stagman and Cooper found that 1 in 5 adolescents will develop mental health difficulties and 1 in 10 will be affected by their mental health problems enough to need support from the school. In my own personal experience, I’ve known dozens of people who were put in mental institutions and lost some truly amazing friends to suicide and drug overdoses.
Many of these people were displaying classic signs of depression or anxiety, especially so at school, a place where you spend most of your time as an adolescent. Teachers and school officials are usually the first people to notice psychological issues in children, and often try to address the situation, but it isn’t fair to put yet another burden on the teachers in this country. Putting trained psychologists and social workers in schools would not only alleviate the pressure on teachers, but would improve the health of students, and could improve school safety.
All children in America have access to free public education, but not all children have access to mental health services. With the growing mass paranoia about school, and higher education, being so publicly broadcast across social media, you would think that schools would try to make sure their students are heard and feel supported. But this has not been the case. Instead of increasing funding for mental health services, most schools continue to increase their police budget and the amount of law enforcement officials in schools.
Many argue that this is for the safety of the students, and that they are only there to protect them but in some cases that’s simply not true. Most cops are not trained in mental health aspects and are generally clueless about what to do if someone has an episode, so they handle the situation in which they were trained. Arrest and detain. This is only adding more trauma to the child’s life instead of providing them with the help they need.
In a society where so many children and teenagers are turning to drug abuse, self-harm, and suicide, the school system should be focusing on helping and nurturing these kids. Rather than hoping it goes away or they can find help on their own. Depression is a silent killer, and our education system is letting it win.
Destiny Cole is a first-year student at Tallahassee Community College from Tallahassee, Florida. She plans to pursue a degree in Communications from the University of South Florida.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TwGe84x7ZPFYWBiF92eJ-ecf1lEFXYUe/edit
