https://www.nbcnews.com/better/heal...ents-will-be-learning-about-mental-ncna911031 Elementary, middle and high school students across the state of New York have a new topic on their educational agendas as they head back to class this fall: mental health. On July 1, a new law took effect in New York, which adds a paragraph to the state's Education Law mandating mental health as part of health education in schools. New York is the first state in the U.S. to require mental health to be taught as part of health education. Mental health experts say it’s a big deal. The stigma associated with mental illness and treatment for mental illness still exists, and is still a significant barrier standing in the way of more people seeking treatment for problems they face, Meredith Coles, PhD, professor of psychology at Binghamton University of the State University of New York, told NBC News BETTER. “It’s time to recognize that mental illnesses are real and treatable.” Estimates from the National Institutes of Mental Health show that among U.S. adults 19.1 percent have had an anxiety disorder within the past year; 31.1 percent will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives; and 6.7 percent are estimated to have had at least one major depressive episode. The numbers among children are similarly if not more jarring. Data published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from a nationally representative sample of 10,123 adolescents ages 13 to 18 found that 22.2 percent had a serious mental illness. Other data estimate 50 percent of mental illness begins by age 14, and 75 percent begins by age 24. And people aren’t getting help: The 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that more than 11 million Americans do not receive needed mental health services. “We need to change attitudes around mental health,” says Coles, whose work focuses on anxiety disorders in both children and adults. “Starting to educate children in schools makes sense.” Decreasing stigma, changing attitudes and giving students practical knowledge they can use when it comes to mental health problems they or others face is why New York passed this legislation, New York’s State Education Commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, tells NBC News BETTER. “When young people learn about mental health and that it is an important aspect of overall health and well-being, the likelihood increases they will be able to effectively recognize signs and symptoms in themselves and others and will know where to turn for help — and it will decrease the stigma that attaches to help-seeking,” she says in an email. “It is critical that we teach young people about mental health.” The law gives the latitude to individual districts, schools and classrooms to decide, as long as they meet some broad parameters, how to design curricula and lesson plans that cover mental health (as is the case for all subjects — including alcohol, drug and tobacco abuse and the prevention and detection of certain cancers, the only two other topics included in the education law that are required to be taught as part of health education in the state of New York). But New York schools aren’t exactly being left on their own to figure out how to add mental health education to their teaching agendas. After the changes to the law were passed in 2016, the New York State Education Department, along with the New York State Office of Mental Health and the Mental Health Association of New York State, Inc. (MHANYS), established the New York State Mental Health Education Advisory Council in August 2017 to provide guidance to schools on how to add mental health to the curricula. The group published guidelines that include nine core elements they recommend be part of mental health education in all schools. Some of those core elements in the Advisory Council’s guidelines include (among others): The concept that mental health is part of wellness, and we all have a personal responsibility to practice the self-care we need to maintain our mental health How to identify early signs of mental health problems, as well as mental health crises Negative stigma and attitudes toward mental illness can contribute to discrimination against people with such conditions and cause people to avoid getting help Appropriate resources to turn to for help and support if you or someone you know is facing a mental health problem The group has also created an online resource center — including teacher trainings, lesson plans and other tools to help schools comply with the new law — which are all available for free for all New York State schools. The intention is to give students the knowledge they need to recognize in themselves and others when they need help, and also make sure they know where to go to get help, explains John Richter, Director of Public Policy for MHANYS and author of the white paper that outlines the guidelines. The new requirement isn’t about teaching kids an introductory psychology course, he says. “It’s meant to be a public health approach to mental health education.” The approach is based on principles similar to those used in mental health training programs for adults such as “Mental Health First Aid,” which are designed to increase mental health literacy by increasing knowledge in how to prevent mental health problems, recognize early signs of mental health problems, and get help (as well as where to get it). Evidence suggest this approach works, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in May in the journal PLoS One. But, what does it look like when you teach it to first-graders in New York City or 10th-graders in Albany? Elementary school students might learn about how to describe their feelings and some skills to manage their feelings, Richter says: What does it mean to be sad? What does anger look like? What does it mean to be happy? If you are angry, what are some ways you can talk about that? What can you do to feel less angry? Older students might learn how to distinguish more specifically between times in your life when sadness is part of a healthy range of moods and emotions in everyday life (such as when you lose a family member or friend) versus when it’s a symptom or problem to be concerned about (if you’re withdrawing from your friends or losing interest in hobbies and activities you typically enjoy). The goal is to change the way educators, students and, ultimately, everyone talks about mental health, Richter says. “We want people to get the message that your mental health is just as important as your physical health.” Other mental health experts agree this approach has the capacity to do a lot of good. “It’s really important for kids at all ages to have some understanding of what a mental health concern is so that it can be normalized,” Louis Kraus, MD, chief of child and adolescent psychology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, tells NBC. Kids (and everyone, for that matter) should be able to recognize signs and symptoms of mental health problems, just like they know when someone else has asthma, allergies or another medical concern, Kraus says. “Mental and physical health are not necessarily separate concepts and the two depend on each other for total health,” says Linda Chokroverty, MD, an attending physician and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. “Knowing what traits and behaviors make young people more resilient in facing mental health challenges is important,” she tells NBC News BETTER. And teaching kids accurate and age-appropriate lessons about mental health in schools (under the guidance of knowledgeable adults) is usually a better option than allowing kids to learn about it from TV shows, movies, social media and elsewhere that may or may not provide kids with the tools they need, she says. While New York is the first state to mandate mental health education in elementary school through high school curricula, it is certainly not the only state paying attention to the issue. Virginia passed legislation that also becomes effective this school year requiring schools to teach mental health lessons to ninth- and 10th-grade students. Richter says other states have been in touch with MHANYS about how to implement similar legislation. Kraus adds that many schools across the country do already teach some mental health education even though it’s not mandated to be part of the curriculum — but certainly not all schools. And similar efforts to require it should be made elsewhere, he says. “It could have a huge positive impact.”
There would be less school shootings if there was less normalization of mental illnesses. They need to be identified, noted and dealt with. A lot of the school shooters' mental states were often ignored
I feel that this is an EXTREMELY important thing that needs to be done in all states in this country. I think Mental health is too easily misunderstood and brushed aside in this country where people are just considered "crazy" and never to be thought of again. As somebody who has had an anxiety disorder my whole life as well as know others with this common disorder and has seen a tragedy that got my brother in law shot and killed due to schizophrenia, I have had a further understanding of mental illness for years and wished more people had a better understanding before blaming guns or whatever else it might be. This shit is real and people need to learn about it, especially in a society where we are creating mental illness with social media and the need to be apart of something, a trend or be popular, get likes, etc.
This type of thing across the united states would help people identify these signs in order to get these people help before harm is done to themselves or to others
In practice, the program provided by the current education system in this country will probably do more harm than good. It will be more about acceptance than reporting and quarantining people who may be threats.
You have to deal with the problem at hand. mental illness is a wide variety of disorders. Get to the more serious ones and you could help those people in time and put them in a system where they get the treatment they need. Another issue is doctors just handing out anti depressants to people. For some it may work but there are a lot of bad side effects to these and if you look down the list of shooters in history, a lot of them were on anti depressants. I think these people deserve real treatment. Just as somebody with addiction would need treatment. We can't cast these people away and all of a sudden they have killed themselves or harmed others when there were tons of signs, it's just that people don't know the signs because the way we treat mental health in this country is dog shit. There is no education for it. People see a homeless person talking to them self. Your average joe will come back from seeing that wherever and just laugh it off about a crazy homeless person when in fact that person probably has a serious mental illness which is intensified with the use of drugs homeless people tend to do
You conservatives are wrong. People should be strong. Stop blaming your problems on exterior factors. Take responsibility and stop crying. Nobody made you do it. You did it yourself. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves.
They should be isolated from society if deemed a risk. Crazy person on the street? Lock them up. Too many crazies think they can get away with stuff nowadays. The involuntary confinement threshold should be lowered.
If you lock them up without proper treatment, they will just get worse and then you would just be punishing them for having a severe mental illness which makes no sense. They have facilities you can send them to where they don't have to be locked up as prisoners or something but rather treated to get better and function in society after treatment
how can you be so sure? the worst of mental illness can at least be managed under treatment but I am not saying somebody with something like schizophrenia can obviously just be treated and that's that. It's about management
They aren't doing really well right now here in the US. Its a "huge problem" because we allow mentally ill people to function in normal society. Like I said, the more normalized a problem is, the more people will accept the odd behavior as normal and then its tolerated and even celebrated.
There are differing degrees, but there should be some kind of predictive index to determine if one would be prone to violent behavior due to a mental illness.
Well this is exactly what I am talking about. You are so uneducated about the subject, you just say hey lets just lock all these people up, fuck em. You seem to think mental illness is a chosen behavior for whatever reason. It can be genetic with people, it can come from too much drug use, etc. A lot of factors. No pun intended but I find it a little crazy your solution is to just cast them away from society and lock them up. You should want to get an understanding on people with severe mental illness so you can see the signs and help. It's not about some normalization. It's about helping those with these disorders because you know, we are all human beings and shit. I have never seen anybody celebrate mental illness. Instead I see people make jokes and laugh about it because they don't have to deal with any sort of it. Well trust me, when an event happens within your own life that has to do with a mental illness and a loss of somebody, you sure as hell want to understand what the fuck that was about. The more people understand each other in this country all around, the better it is for everybody involved.
No, I dont think mental illness is chosen. Thats rediculous. However, there are likely a good number of people who need to be committed to "facilities" to get better. We probably need more of these in the world where treatments and programs are more "proactive".
It's hard to tell with serious mental illnesses who is gonna be violent. From my experience, what i saw. It was subtle. Knowing what I know now, me as well as a couple others could of stopped it. The signs were there. We just didn't know well enough. When people with schizophrenia go into a psychosis, hallucinations happen. That's how he got shot. She carried a gun with her, she was paranoid at the time, seeing things but kept it to herself. The last couple weeks before everything happened the signs were there. She hallucinated one night and shot her son at 17 years old. In her eyes he was something else because of the psychosis. Trust me she would of never hurt that boy in her right mind. He was the favorite of the two kids. The point of that story is that the violence isn't always obvious. Sometimes it just snaps inside somebody. I don't know how else to explain that part. She now lives in one of those facilities and will the rest of her days and it's not like a prison, they are treated well and treated at the root of whatever they have and is managed. Not cured, just treated and managed. I think with the right education on the subject, we can help those with not only the mild of mental illness but to the most extreme as well. I feel what New York is doing is a step in the right direction. I think a lot of people are mentally ill. I can see it now. I only think it will get worse with social media and the way kids and teens consume media and get dopamine rushes over this loop of getting likes and posting pics and getting likes or follows, whatever it might be. If people can just recognize these things and see it, communicate and get that person help, I think it not only makes lives better but will ultimately make this country better. Whether it will be fully seen through across the united states, i don't know, I can only wish. It's not fun walking into the store late at night and seeing some homeless guy talking to himself and when he speaks to you, makes absolutely no sense. It's easy for me now to see that a lot of them are schizophrenic and hear voices and whatever drugs they might be taking just makes it so much worse. It's tough knowing those people suffer
Good thread Cippy. Mental health is a very important topic that deserves a proper discussion. Mental illness is to often ignored or downplayed. If we looked at it and took it seriously, we might find less mass shootings, less homeless people, etc. Maybe we'd treat each other like human beings.
Guns don't kill people, crazy people kill OK, lets invest in helping these people so we can avoid shootings maybe Trumpets: No, too expensive. Lock them up.
I like this very much. My brother had a severe mental illness as did my mother. It caused me a lot of problems. I remember a lady in Oswegon who had a child with Mongolism. She took her child for a walk through downtown Oswego, now downtown Lake Oswego, every day. I grew so used to it that I never stared. Starring also seemed wrong to me. This was not something that I learned but that I just felt was right, and so I treated them just like anyone else. Also, it felt good to do so. Thank you for sharing that with me.
