Globally, one in seven teenagers experiences a mental health issue, according to a 2021 World Health Organisation report. This accounts for 13 per cent of the global burden of disease in this age group with anxiety, stress, depression and behavioural disorders leading the causes of illness and disability among adolescents.
According to WHO, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds globally in 2019. This grim reality shows the consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions which extend into adulthood; thus impairing both physical and mental health while limiting opportunities that lead to fulfilling lives.
WHO estimates that 76 to 85 per cent of people suffering from severe mental disorders or with disabilities connected to mental health do not receive any treatment in low and middle-income countries. These undetected and untreated issues among adolescents affect academic performance and continue into adulthood negatively impacting the quality of work and relationships.
Adolescence is a unique and formative development stage yet the mental health needs of students have for long been neglected, causing a serious mental health challenge. It is more worrying because students are vulnerable to pressures of physical, emotional and social changes, including exposure to poverty, abuse, or violence, which can affect their mental well-being.
Other issues among students stem from long-term bullying, teen pregnancy and high-performance expectations from parents and guardians; factors that are still dominant in our society.
Protecting adolescents from adversity, promoting socio-emotional learning, psychological well-being, and ensuring access to mental health care are critical for their health and well-being during the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Schools play a central role in creating awareness and supporting students going through emotional distress. The aforementioned issues could be significantly reduced if mental health is made an everyday conversation in schools.
It is indeed difficult to tell the mental state of a student by just observing physical appearance because some can mask distress with smiles or over-excitement. It is also impossible to detect when a suicidal thought crosses a student’s mind, but issues should not be allowed to escalate to that point. That is why it is crucial to bridge the existing knowledge gap when it comes to students' mental well-being, majorly through creating awareness.
Students should be cognisant that they will face stressful moments in their life at some point; some instances are avoidable such as exam anxiety while others are unavoidable such as the loss of a loved one. Frequent information about stressors makes students cope with the normal stress of life without a risk of falling into depression.
It will take a collaborative approach to promote the mental well-being of students. Parents, teachers, and support staff need to be trained in evidence-based mental health awareness. That way it will be easier to notice mental distress signs and necessitate timely assistance to affected students.
Teachers are well-positioned to promote mental well-being because they spend a considerable amount of time with students. They should be on the lookout to flag mental health issues by observing or listening to students’ overwhelming personal or family issues without being judgmental.
For instance, not all cases of dropout, sudden performance lagging, and poor time management point to mental health issues but should raise eyebrows. Teachers should identify behavioural changes that are affecting performance and communicate with the schools’ psychiatrists or parents, to help the affected students access timely psychological or medical assistance if needed.
Some parents, especially in rural schools, are not well-informed about what mental health entails, calling for the need to debunk misconceptions, myths and the resulting stigma. Some relate mental disorders to witchcraft, curse, or spiritual problems instead of viewing them as medical conditions that can be diagnosed and treated.
The misinformation reduces the chances of the victims or their caregivers opening up, eliminating the best-known remedy pertaining to staying mentally healthy. It is even hard for individuals to open up because suicide attempt is considered a criminal offence in Kenya.
Mental well-being should be among the main strategies towards attaining academic excellence. Whilst creating awareness initiatives in schools is commendable, allocating more finances to run mental health programmes and equipping school health departments to diagnose and treat mental disorders is the optimal solution to the challenge.
The schools alone won’t manage to build resources, policies, and programmes to deal with the rising number of mental health issues, hence, they need to collaborate with the government to support the initiatives by posting mental health professionals and equipping health facilities in schools. These measures will help students realise their full potential and significantly reduce the tragic tales of students giving up on their lives.
Director of Education at Makini Schools