persuasive speech about mental health in schools

Students Speak Out: ‘We Need Mental Health Days’

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Even before the pandemic set in, alarming numbers of young people were suffering from mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. The stress of COVID-19 has exacerbated those struggles. Schools are working on ways to support students’ emotional trauma, including allowing excused absences for mental health days. Education Week asked five students how they felt during the pandemic, and what role mental health days might play in helping students nationwide.

Sara Falluji, rising junior, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington, Ky .

With COVID, this year has been stressful and difficult. I noticed it in my friends. A lot of that stress for me has manifested in physical ways. It’s sort of a fatigue, and an inability to focus on school assignments.

I didn’t go [to school] in person. I was doing virtual. I wouldn’t really skip a class, but I took naps immediately after my last class. I didn’t even intend to, it was just happening. I’d struggle with getting work in on time because I couldn’t get the energy to finish. Typically, I get straight As, but this year I had a C and quite a few Bs.

We really need excused mental health days. There have been plenty of times I’ve needed one or a friend needed one, but stress is our normal and you just push through. I’ve never seen an avenue for taking a day like that, and didn’t want people to [see] me differently for it. In a competitive program like the one I’m in, anxiety is so normal, it’s like why would you take a day off when we’re all going through it?

Karla Pickett, rising sophomore, Fairfield Central High School, Winnsboro, S.C .

We don’t have excused mental health days. I most definitely would use them. Sometimes school can become overwhelming and you need a day to process it all.

I did virtual the whole year. I was able to maintain my grades. But it became overwhelming not being in a room with a teacher, not being there to get help you when you need it, to talk through the issues. It was really stressful. I was taking four dual-enrollment courses and it was very difficult.

My sister went to college, and we are the only two siblings, so not having her in the house to talk to was a difficult transition. I didn’t get to see any of my friends during the pandemic at all. I had a lot of anxiety. The pandemic was the main reason why. I didn’t want to get others sick. I was worried about my grandmothers, aunts, and uncles getting sick. And I wasn’t able to see them.

I really could have used mental health days. I was absolutely stressed out. I would have spent a day meditating, figuring out what I need to do to get back to me.

Ben Ballman, 2021 graduate, Winston Churchill High School, Potomac, Md .

I’ve been working on [student] mental health issues since the 8th grade. I had these friends, they’re not feeling so great, they don’t really see a point in living. Pretty extreme things for 13-year-olds. And I’m concerned; these are my favorite people in the world and I have no idea what to do.

I tried to learn more about it. I started reading articles and books. I started to be able to point [friends] in the right direction, where they could go for support, the resources they have. Over time, it snowballed. In high school, I’m doing it more and more, and I’m thinking, I’m not a professional! What the heck is going on here? Kids are coming to another kid. They should go to the counseling department. Sophomore year, I created a Google form, asking questions, like whether students feel supported by counselors. I sent it out across Montgomery County and got almost 500 responses from a lot of schools. It was a resounding negative response.

Kids don’t feel supported by counselors. They don’t feel welcome. They see a counselor, they rush through a checklist and get them out the door as fast as possible. I was really surprised by that. So I made a little team to help me reach out to students with more questions. And we interviewed counselors and administrators to get that perspective. That led to an open letter I sent to the board of education the summer after sophomore year, describing the issues and possible solutions. I met with the heads of counseling and psychology in the county, and it was good, but I never really heard anything.

I decided to get more students involved. We created a coalition called DMV Students for Mental Health Reform . The main point is to work with local delegates on legislation. In February, Delegate [Alonzo] Washington introduced HB461 , which introduced mental health days for the first time in Maryland as a statewide measure. It passed the House, but stagnated in the Senate. We were working on some amendments.

There are three main arguments for mental health days. They allow students a way to support themselves outside school. School can be extremely stressful. You need to take a break, take a breather, focus on yourself for a bit. They also decrease stigma and allow more open conversation about mental health. They would also help schools practice mental health prevention. A lot of times, schools have resources, like programs, and counselors, but many times they don’t have the ability to see which students are struggling before it’s too late and it reaches a crisis situation.

Kylee Linnell, 2021 graduate, Phoenix High School, Phoenix, Ore.

I have a complicated history with mental health. I have [obsessive compulsive disorder], which is a whirlwind in itself; childhood trauma, anxiety stemming from OCD. I’ve struggled on and off with depression. I have good days and bad days.

I love the idea of mental health days. Our school is supposed to do them, but they’re still working out the kinks. Your parent has to call in. Sometimes kids just need a half hour. Like if I walk into my math class I’m gonna have an anxiety attack.

This past year we had COVID, and we also had the Almeda fire here. My emotions have been all over the board. In some ways, I did better, because I was able to distance myself from what’s going on because I didn’t see people, didn’t go to school every day. I watched a lot of TV in my room, got lost in a fictional world. But eventually it crashed down. I had a meltdown, I can’t do this anymore, can’t keep pushing it away.

So many people lost homes [in the fire]. It wasn’t clear how we were supposed to get online to go to school. Nothing went smoothly until December. If you had questions, you had to figure it out on your own. I tried to reach a school counselor. I was struggling, but so was everyone else. There just weren’t enough resources. Even if they do get back to you, their attention is divided among 100 students.

The most important thing schools can do is find some way to listen to student feedback about mental health. Our school gave us a survey at the end of the year. They asked us stuff they’ve never asked us before, like do you feel safe in school? Do you feel like you fit in? Are you happy? And all I could think was, why are you asking this now, when we’ve just graduated? I wish they’d asked us years ago.

Amber Kiricoples, 2021 graduate, Peabody High School, Peabody, Mass.

I struggle with mental health. It runs in my family. I go to therapy regularly. It got bad in high school. My friend and I proposed excused mental health days to our school committee. They were open to it, but we were never able to follow up. It got lost in the COVID fog. They are working with us on a school curriculum for mental health, though.

We need mental health days. It’s not some joke. It’s actually a time where you need to treat your mental well-being like you do your physical well-being. You get a sprained ankle, you don’t go to school. If you wake up with a panic attack, or anxiety, what good will it do you to sit in a building all day where you can’t let it out? You need to take care of yourself.

What do adults misunderstand? Well, for one thing, that if you’re having a bad day, if you have a little attitude, you’re not a bad person. If you can’t get out of bed one day, it’s not because you’re bad. You just can’t explain it.

Coverage of social and emotional learning is supported in part by a grant from The Allstate Foundation, at AllstateFoundation.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.

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Provider search, meta data and taxonomies filter, parenting and family mental health, why mental health awareness should be taught in schools.

According to statistics, 20% of adolescents may experience a mental health problem . Additionally, 70% of children and teens get no help with their mental health problems at a sufficiently early age.

Mental health issues are becoming more common in children and adolescents in the US. Thus children and adolescents should learn about mental health in school. There are several reasons why this is so, and this article will take a closer look at them.

Mental Health Is Equally Important as Physical Health

When we hear the word “health,” we tend to think of physical health. Physical health plays a vital role in our lives. However, we should also consider mental health. If we want to maintain a happy and healthy life, we need to learn how mental and physical health work together. When they work together, we can keep our lives in balance.

To live a happy life while coping with everyday stresses, we need to know how to handle our mental health. We can learn this while we are in school. Knowing the role mental health plays in their lives allows children to become happy adults. Happy, functional adults are better equipped to handle life.

Students’ Mental Health Impacts Learning and Achievement

Few children realize that poor mental health can affect learning and achievement. Children and adolescents who have mental health problems may have trouble learning. They may also have difficulty completing tasks and concentrating. These children are also more likely to have lower grades and take a leave of absence from school.

Children and teens with mental health problems are less likely to graduate. They also struggle more with attending and completing post-secondary education.

Interferes with Physical Health

Poor mental health can negatively affect our physical health and vice versa. However, many schools pay more attention to teaching physical health, focusing on things like nutrition and exercise.

In the US, most school systems emphasize the importance of physical education in children’s lives. These systems recognize how physical health education can impact children’s futures. Yet, they often fail to place the same importance on teaching about mental health.

Many children never learn about managing their mental health. Consequently, they are more at risk of developing adverse physical conditions as they get older. For example, poor mental health can lead to chronic fatigue and insomnia . It can also lead to increased inflammation and abnormal levels of stress hormones.

Suicide Is the 2 nd Leading Cause of Death in Children and Adolescents

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) report that around 1.4 million people in the US attempted suicide in 2019. Even more shocking is the fact that suicide is the second leading cause of death in children, teens, and young adults (ages 10-34). Unfortunately, more young people die from suicide than heart disease and cancer.

Although 90% of people who die by suicide showed signs of mental illness prior to death, only 46% had been medically diagnosed with a mental health condition. This is another crucial reason for educators to teach children how to manage their mental health.

Societal Pressures from Social Media

Children need to understand mental health when they start using social media. Today’s world places huge importance on social media, especially in young people’s lives. On social media, children and teens learn unhealthy ways to talk, behave, socialize, and interact.

As children rely more on social media, their mental health can decline. High levels of social media use in children correlate with depression and anxiety . If children learn about mental health in school, they can make better social media choices, lessening the likelihood of developing these conditions.

Relational Development in Adolescence

While in school, children and teens learn how to develop relationships. They enter into friendships and romantic relationships and learn the foundations for relational patterns.

While learning about relationships, many experience mental health issues. Some of these include anxiety and depression when relationships end badly. Failed or stressful relationships commonly bring on these emotions. When relationships end, adolescents often lack the skills to deal with negative emotions.

Teaching mental health in school will enable them to build stronger relationships. They will be better able to identify emotional and mental states and cope with them when relationships end.

School Is a Stressful Environment

Children and teens spend much time in school, and it’s no surprise that schools can be stressful places. Students have to cope with exams, tests, forming and losing friendships. They also have to focus on their academic and career futures.

Children also have the stress of learning how to navigate relationships with authority. All this stress can lead to the development of mental health disorders. Teaching children how to manage their stress helps prevent mental health problems.

The Onset of Mental Health Disorders at an Early Age

Many mental health conditions develop during childhood and adolescence. There are shocking estimates from the CDC. One in six US children between 2 to 8 has a mental health, behavioral, or developmental disorder.

Additionally, 8.4% of children between the ages of 6 and 17 have had depression or anxiety during their life. Learning about mental health will encourage more children to seek help sooner.

Increased Risk of Substance Abuse

The link between poor mental health and increased substance abuse is undeniable. The use of drugs and alcohol is a way for many people to cope with their feelings.

If children learn about mental health in school, they will know how to better deal with emotions. This will result in fewer young people turning to drugs and alcohol as an escape.

Now You Know Why Mental Health should Be Part of Schools’ Curriculums!

Teachers and students should learn the signs of mental health problems. Schools need to realize that teaching mental health is important. Teaching mental and physical health together leads to better outcomes for children and adolescents.

Students’ mental health impacts many areas of their lives, including their relationships with other people and with drugs and alcohol. If children and teens learn about mental health in school, they will manage better in life.

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About the Author:  Elvira is the founder of worldcrutches.com . Because of her experience of fractures, she writes all variety of information about crutches. She enjoys running and reading because it relaxes her in her busy life.

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1 thoughts on “ why mental health awareness should be taught in schools ”.

Thank you for sharing such an informative and thought-provoking post on the importance of mental health awareness. Your insights on the prevalence of mental health issues and the stigmas surrounding them were eye-opening. It’s crucial that we prioritize mental health in our society, and your post highlights the many reasons why. By educating ourselves and others, we can break down the barriers that prevent people from seeking help and create a more supportive and understanding environment for those struggling with mental health challenges. Thank you for shedding light on this important issue and inspiring us to take action.

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The Importance of Mental Health Awareness in Schools

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by Nancy Barile, Award-Winning Teacher, M.A.Ed.

Mental health awareness is an important issue for all educators, who are often the first line of defense for their students. Education professionals have recognized the impact that a student's mental health has on learning and achievement, and they realize that there's a great deal that can be done to help students with mental health issues. As a high school teacher with more than 23 years of experience, I welcome the fact that mental health awareness is finally becoming an important part of a school's function and curriculum.

Seeing the Signs in My Student

A few years ago, a student in my senior class changed drastically in a short period of time. I noticed that Melina no longer did her homework, and she didn't even try on her essays. Previously meticulous in her appearance, Melina would come to school disheveled, wearing the same clothes. When I tried to speak to her, she was uncharacteristically distant and withdrawn. Because I had some training in mental health awareness, I knew Melina was in some sort of trouble.

Luckily, my school had social workers on staff who could speak to Melina and assess her issues. They discovered that Melina was depressed and suicidal, and she needed an immediate psychiatric intervention. Melina was hospitalized for a period of time, but she was able to return to my classroom a few months later. With the help of medication and therapy, she managed to graduate with her class.

Understanding the Impact

The National Alliance on Mental Illness  estimates that one in five people live with some sort of mental disorder or disease. Despite the fact that the average age of early signs of mental illness is 14, most individuals don't seek help until adulthood. Underlining the seriousness is the fact that 60 percent of high school students with mental illness don't graduate.

Further reading:  Ease Student Anxiety in the Classroom

New York mental health experts recognized that earlier intervention could result in more positive outcomes for these students. Beginning in July 2018, New York will be the first state in the nation to require mental health education for all students.  The overall mission of New York's School Mental Health (SMH) program  is to promote healthy social, emotional, and behavioral development of students, and "break down barriers to learning so the general well-being of students, families, and school staff can be enhanced in collaboration with other comprehensive student support and services."

The SMH program supports the emotional health and academic growth of all students with the following:

• Integrating comprehensive services and support throughout every grade level
• Assessing mental health needs through universal, selective, and targeted interventions
• Providing access to behavioral and mental health services and programs
• Leveraging higher-level personnel, such as those working with the Department of Education, for necessary support and services
• Building collaborative relationships between the school and students' families and communities

Spreading Awareness Across the Nation

Until mental health education is a mandatory aspect of all schools, teachers and administrators can work to promote awareness with their students. Key elements to shine a light on include the concept of self-care and responsibility for  one's own mental health and wellness , with an emphasis on the fact that mental health is an integral part of health, and the concept of recovery from mental illness.

Teachers and students should be provided with ways to recognize signs of developing mental health problems, and there should be opportunities around the awareness and management of mental health crises, including the risk of suicide or self-harm. Further, instruction should address the relationship between mental health, substance abuse, and other negative coping behaviors, as well as the negative impact of stigma and cultural attitudes toward mental illness.

Further reading:  Social-Emotional Learning

Because teens spend most of their day at school, it just makes sense to have mental health awareness and education become part of the curriculum. When we empower students with knowledge, and encourage dialogue, students will be able to get the help they need.

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Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community (World Health Organization, 2022).

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Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools

An Action Guide for School and District Leaders

At a Glance

Multitiered systems of support, why schools, tools to get started, additional resources.

Schools are prioritizing students’ mental health, and there are many tools and resources to choose from. CDC created this action guide as a place to start. It can help school and district leaders build on what they are already doing to promote students’ mental health and find new strategies to fill in gaps.

The action guide describes six in-school strategies that are proven to promote and support mental health and well-being. For each strategy, the guide also describes approaches, or specific ways to put the strategy into action, and examples of evidence-based policies, programs, and practices.

Download full Action Guide in PDF

School and district leaders of kindergarten through 12th-grade schools (K–12), including principals and leaders of student support teams.

Provide school and district leaders with strategies, approaches, and practices that can improve students’ mental health.

CDC has identified six school-based strategies and associated approaches that can help prevent mental health problems and promote positive behavioral and mental health of students.

Increase Students’ Mental Health Literacy

• Deliver classroom-based mental health education curricula
• Use peer-led modeling programs

Promote Mindfulness

• Deliver classroom-based mindfulness education
• Dedicate time for students to independently practice mindfulness
• Offer small group mindfulness activities

Promote Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Learning

• Provide classroom instruction focused on building social skills and emotional development
• Offer targeted education focused on teaching social skills and emotional development

Enhance Connectedness Among Students, Staff, and Families

• Provide relationship-building programs

Provide Psychosocial Skills Training and Cognitive Behavioral Interventions

• Promote acceptance and commitment to change
• Provide cognitive behavioral interventions
• Engage students in coping skills training groups

Support Staff Well-Being

• Offer mindfulness-based training programs
• Provide therapeutic resources

Multitiered Systems of Support (MTSS) are used by many schools and districts to support different levels of students’ needs. The strategies in this action guide can align with schools’ existing MTSS to enhance the work schools have already started.

Schools help promote the mental health and well-being of students through education, prevention, and early intervention efforts. They provide an opportunity to reach a large number of youth with strategies that can lessen the impact of negative experiences and improve students’ health and well-being.

• Schools can establish safe and supportive environments.
• Schools can connect students to caring adults and encourage positive peer relationships.
• Schools can give students mental health support and link them and their families to community behavioral and mental health services.
• Schools that promote student mental health and well-being can improve classroom behavior, school engagement, and peer relationships. These factors are connected to academic success.

The tools below were created for school and district leaders and mental health support teams to help prioritize strategies and approaches, create a plan to put them in place, and communicate the plan with key partners.

This resource [PDF – 2 MB]  provides practical tools designed to help you  1)   Reflect on what your school or district is already doing to promote mental health and well-being,  2) Prioritize  strategies and approaches from the Action Guide to fill gaps and strengthen what is already in place, and  3) Plan for Action  to implement the strategies and approaches.

The slides included in this presentation template [PPT – 9 MB]  can be adapted and used to help you communicate to key partners (e.g. school staff, district administrators, school boards, parent groups) about your plans for implementing strategies and approaches from the Action Guide.

Some of the strategies and approaches in this action guide may also improve other important health outcomes, such as experiences of violence and suicide.

CDC has several Resources for Action  for preventing violence.

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How should we talk about mental health?

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Mental health suffers from a major image problem. One in every four people experiences mental health issues — yet more than 40 percent of countries worldwide have no mental health policy. Across the board it seems like we have no idea how to talk about it respectfully and responsibly.

Stigma and discrimination are the two biggest obstacles to a productive public dialogue about mental health; indeed, the problem seems to be largely one of communication. So we asked seven mental health experts: How should we talk about mental health? How can informed and sensitive people do it right – and how can the media do it responsibly?

End the stigma

Easier said than done, of course. Says journalist  Andrew Solomon : “People still think that it’s shameful if they have a mental illness. They think it shows personal weakness. They think it shows a failing. If it’s their children who have mental illness, they think it reflects their failure as parents.” This self-inflicted stigma can make it difficult for people to speak about even their own mental health problems. According to neuroscientist  Sarah Caddick , this is because when someone points to his wrist to tell you it’s broken, you can easily understand the problem, but that’s not the case when the issue is with the three-pound mass hidden inside someone’s skull. “The minute you start talking about your mind, people get very anxious, because we associate that with being who we are, fundamentally with ‘us’ — us as a person, us as an individual, our thoughts, our fears, our hopes, our aspirations, our everything.” Says mental health care advocate  Vikram Patel , “Feeling miserable could in fact be seen as part of you or an extension of your social world, and applying a biomedical label is not always something that everyone with depression, for example, is comfortable with.” Banishing the stigma attached to mental health issues can go a long way to facilitating genuinely useful conversations.

Avoid correlations between criminality and mental illness

People are too quick to dole out judgments on people who experience mental health problems, grouping them together when isolated incidents of violence or crime occur. Says  Caddick , “You get a major incident like Columbine or Virginia Tech and then the media asks, ‘Why didn’t people know that he was bipolar?’ ‘Was he schizophrenic?’ From there, some people think, ‘Well, everybody with bipolar disease is likely to go out and shoot down a whole bunch of people in a school,’ or, ‘People who are schizophrenics shouldn’t be out on the street.’”  Solomon  agrees that this correlation works against a productive conversation about mental health: “The tendency to connect people’s crimes to mental illness diagnoses that are not in fact associated with criminality needs to go away. ‘This person murdered everyone because he was depressed.’ You think, yes, you could sort of indicate here this person was depressed and he murdered everyone, but most people who are depressed do not murder everyone.”

But do correlate more between mental illness and suicide

According to the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), 90 percent of people who die by suicide have depression or other mental disorders, or substance-abuse disorders in conjunction with other mental disorders. Yet we don’t give this link its due. Says  Solomon , “Just as the association between mental illness and crime is too strong, the connection between mental illness and suicide is too weak. So I feel like what I constantly read in the articles is that ‘so-and-so killed himself because his business had gone bankrupt and his wife had left him.’ And I think, okay, those were the triggering circumstances, but he killed himself because he suffered from a mental illness that drove him to kill himself. He was terribly depressed.”

Avoid words like “crazy” or “psycho”

Not surprisingly, nearly all the mental health experts we consulted were quick to decry playground slang like “mental,” “schizo,” “crazy,” “loonie,” or “nutter,” stigmatizing words that become embedded in people’s minds from a young age. NIMH Director  Thomas Insel  takes that one step further — he doesn’t like the category of “mental health problems” in general. He says, “Should we call cancer a ‘cell cycle problem’? Calling serious mental illness a ‘behavioral health problem’ is like calling cancer a ‘pain problem.’” Comedian  Ruby Wax , however, has a different point of view: “I call people that are mentally disturbed, you know, I say they’re crazy. I think in the right tone, that’s not the problem. Let’s not get caught in the minutiae of it.”

If you feel comfortable talking about your own experience with mental health, by all means, do so

Self-advocacy can be very powerful. It reaches people who are going through similar experiences as well as the general public.  Solomon  believes that people equipped to share their experiences should do so: “The most moving letter I ever received in a way was one that was only a sentence long, and it came from someone who didn’t sign his name. He just wrote me a postcard and said, ‘I was going to kill myself, but I read your book and changed my mind.’ And really, I thought, okay, if nobody else ever reads anything I’ve written, I’ve done some good in the world. It’s very important just to keep writing about these things, because I think there’s a trickle-down effect, and that the vocabulary that goes into serious books actually makes its way into the common experience — at least a little bit of it does — and makes it easier to talk about all of these things.”  Solomon ,  Wax , as well as  Temple Grandin , below, have all become public figures for mental health advocacy through sharing their own experiences.

Don’t define a person by his/her mental illnesses

Just as a tumor need not define a person, the same goes for mental illness. Although the line between mental health and the “rest” of a person is somewhat blurry, experts say the distinction is necessary. Says  Insel : “We need to talk about mental disorders the way we talk about other medical disorders. We generally don’t let having a medical illness define a person’s identity, yet we are very cautious about revealing mental illness because it will somehow define a person’s competence or even suggest dangerousness.”  Caddick  agrees: “There’s a lot of things that go on in the brain, and just because one thing goes wrong doesn’t mean that everything’s going wrong.”

Separate the person from the problem

Continuing from the last,  Insel  and  Patel  both recommend avoiding language that identifies people only by their mental health problems. Says  Insel , speak of “someone with schizophrenia,” not “the schizophrenic.” (Although, he points out, people with autism do often ask to be referred to as “autistic.”) Making this distinction clear, says  Patel , honors and respects the individual. “What you’re really saying is, this is something that’s not part of a person; it’s something the person is suffering from or is living with, and it’s a different thing from the person.”

Sometimes the problem isn’t that we’re using the wrong words, but that we’re not talking at all

Sometimes it just starts with speaking up. In  Solomon’s  words: “Wittgenstein said, ‘All I know is what I have words for.’ And I think that if you don’t have the words for it, you can’t explain to somebody else what your need is. To some degree, you can’t even explain to yourself what your need is. And so you can’t get better.” But, as suicide prevention advocate  Chris Le  knows well, there are challenges to talking about suicide and depression. Organizations aiming to raise awareness about depression and suicide have to wrangle with suicide contagion, or copycat suicides that can be sparked by media attention, especially in young people. Le, though, feels strongly that promoting dialogue ultimately helps. One simple solution, he says, is to keep it personal: “Reach out to your friends. If you’re down, talk to somebody, because remember that one time that your friend was down, and you talked to them, and they felt a little better? So reach out, support people, talk about your emotions and get comfortable with them.”

Recognize the amazing contributions of people with mental health differences

Says autism activist  Temple Grandin : “If it weren’t for a little bit of autism, we wouldn’t have any phones to talk on.” She describes the tech community as filled with autistic pioneers. “Einstein definitely was; he had no language until age three. How about Steve Jobs? I’ll only mention the dead ones by name. The live ones, you’ll have to look them up on the Internet.” Of depression, Grandin says: “The organizations involved with depression need to be emphasizing how many really creative people, people whose books we love, whose movies we love, their arts, have had a lot of problems with depression. See, a little bit of those genetics makes you sensitive, makes you emotional, makes you sensitive — and that makes you creative in a certain way.”

Humor helps

Humor, some say, is the best medicine for your brain. Says comedian  Wax : “If you surround [your message] with comedy, you have an entrée into their psyche. People love novelty, so for me it’s sort of foreplay: I’m softening them up, and then you can deliver as dark as you want. But if you whine, if you whine about being a woman or being black, good luck. Everybody smells it. But it’s true. People are liberated by laughing at themselves.”

Featured illustration via iStockphoto.

About the author

Thu-Huong Ha is a freelance writer. Previously she was the books and culture reporter for Quartz and the context editor at TED. Her writing has also appeared on Slate and in The New York Times Book Review. Her debut novel, Hail Caesar, was published in 2007 by PUSH, a YA imprint of Scholastic, and was named an NYPL Book for the Teen Age. Follow her at twitter.com/thu

• Andrew Solomon
• Editor's picks
• How should we talk about?
• mental health
• mental illness
• questions worth asking
• Sarah Caddick
• Temple Grandin
• Thomas Insel
• Vikram Patel

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In COVID's wake, we need a mandatory mental health curriculum in schools

Even before the pandemic schools rarely had trained professionals on staff to provide mental health services..

If the “second wave” of COVID-19 spreading across the nation is not cause enough for fear, grief and uncertainty in the hearts and minds of Americans, there is a hidden — equally devastating and potentially just as deadly — third wave that desperately needs to be addressed. It is the mental health crisis ravaging communities, especially young children and adolescents.

Let us start with the alarming data. A recent American Psychology Association study found seven out of every 10 Gen Zers, those 8-to 23 years of age, were most likely to report experiencing common symptoms of depression. Similarly, the CDC released statistics in November showing a 24% increase in children, ages 5-11, and 31% increase of adolescents, 12-17 years old, requiring mental health-related hospitalizations since the onset of the pandemic. And perhaps most alarming of all, the Annual State of Health in America has recently reported pre-teens and teens had the highest rate of suicide ideations as compared to other age groups.   These are warning signs we cannot afford to ignore; never before has the psychological well-being of youth been more critically urgent.

Immediately implement mental health curriculum for all school systems

A key component of our national response must be the immediate implementation of a mandatory mental health curriculum for all school systems across the country. The structure of the curriculum would build on developing coping and problem solving skills and self-care practice. Providing access and teaching students about available tools and resources, including the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale screening tool — a set of easy questions that anyone can use to identify those at risk for suicidal behavior — Is essential. Other resources like the free engaging videos available at Psych Hub aimed at improving mental health literacy, would teach youth early on about the signs of mental health distress and reduce the stigma surrounding getting care. The results would help inform the care needed to ensure those at high risk get the right level of care. 

There is evidence that having a mental health curriculum works. In Canada, a study found those who completed such a curriculum not only improved their knowledge on mental health issues, but their completion “predicted a corresponding improvement in attitudes toward mental illness and a reduction in stigma.” A second study in Texas found that a curriculum emphasizing empathy and acceptance reduced bullying and violence towards students diagnosed with mental illnesses. 

The problem is that while some schools offer a health class with one lesson tied to mental health, only 20 states have formally implemented mental health into their existing curriculums.   So, while schools are often the place students go to for help and to separate themselves for a few hours from the problems at home, the realities of COVID marked by remote and hybrid learning has complicated access to this important safe space.

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Exacerbating matters is that even before the pandemic schools rarely had trained professionals on staff to provide mental health services.  Only about 40% of all schools in the U.S. have a full-time nurse and 25% do not have nurse at all. Only about half of schools have onsite mental health care or arrangements with outside organizations to provide such care. So, it should come as no surprise that only 16% of all children receive mental health assistance in school environments where they spend the majority of their waking hours. 

Funding mental health curriculum is a great investment

Put simply, the U.S. must adopt a mandatory national mental health curriculum for our schools systems that is properly staffed, equipped, and funded. In fact, any such curriculum will be doomed to failure if it is not supported by funding and policies to eliminate the Grand Canyon-like gaps that currently exist.  

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To justify the cost of implementation, we need only point to the plethora of studies that have shown the lingering consequences and costs of child mental health disorders that go unchecked into adulthood. One such study has indicated that mental health illnesses costs employers over $44 billion per year in lost productivity . In other words, funding a school mental health curriculum will pay enormous dividends well into the future, dwarfing the initial investment required. But, if we don’t act now, young children will be victims to lasting effects no vaccine will immunize.

Keita Franklin ( @keitafranklin4 ), the chief clinical officer for Loyal Source and former director of suicide prevention for the Department of Defense and VA, is the co-director of the Columbia Lighthouse Project. 

Dr. Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber ( @PosnerKelly ), clinical professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, is director and founder of the Columbia Lighthouse Project. In 2018, she was awarded the U.S. Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.

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Mental Health in Schools

How to teach mental health to students.

Part of Our Teacher Training and Wellbeing Series

Conversations about mental health have been on the rise in schools for some years now, and with good reason. The number of young people being referred to mental health services was already growing steadily before the pandemic hit, and it’s showing no sign of slowing down now the world is seemingly ‘back to normal.’

In fact, the BBC reported last year that there has been a 77% increase in the number of children and young people needing specialist treatment for severe mental health crises. The Children’s Commissioner’s March 2023 report sheds more light on this, reporting that 1 in 5 children said that they were unhappy with their mental health.

Mental health refers to the state of a person's psychological , emotional , and social well-being . It encompasses a range of factors, including an individual's ability to manage their thoughts , feelings , and behaviours , cope with stress and adversity , maintain healthy relationships , and have a sense of purpose and meaning in life .

Wellbeing refers to the state of an individual's physical , mental , and emotional health , which encompasses maintaining positive relationships , engaging in meaningful activities , and managing stress . It involves physical health , emotional regulation , social connection , and mental resilience . Overall, wellbeing is a holistic concept that can be enhanced by prioritising self-care and engaging in activities that promote health and happiness .

"RSE" is an acronym that stands for "Relationships and Sex Education" . It refers to a type of education that is provided in schools by the government, which covers topics such as healthy relationships, consent, sexual health, and sexuality . The purpose of RSE is to ensure that young people are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to develop positive and respectful relationships, make informed decisions about their own health and wellbeing, and navigate the complexities of the modern world.

Getting the conversation going -

A look back in time.

As someone who grew up in the nineties and early 2000s, my education on mental health and wellbeing was fairly limited. Witnessing my best friend experience mental health challenges during our teenage years deeply impacted me. This inspired me to complete a course in children's counseling with Place2Be before becoming a primary school teacher, as I understood firsthand the significance of nurturing mental health and wellbeing in young people.

“Time to Talk Day was launched in 2014 by Time to Change , it was a campaign to get the conversation going and to end mental health stigma and discrimination, which was run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness .”

Let’s fast forward to February 2016, it’s ‘Time to Talk’ day. Not yet a qualified teacher, I've brought cakes, games, and conversation starters to the office to promote mental health awareness. Although some colleagues were initially hesitant, my efforts ultimately led to a productive conversation, however, I’ll never forget the slight air of confusion and the reluctance to approach such topics, something as curious and obscure as veganism or climate change, perhaps.

Skip ahead to February 2017, I’m completing my Primary PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education) and I want to do a lesson about mental health. I'm met with positivity, yet that similar air of confusion … the ‘if you have mental health it means you’re crazy’ kind of vibe.

By the time I had entered the classroom as a newly qualified teacher in February 2018, I was so overcome with the quantity of work, I didn’t even remember that it was ‘Time to Talk’ day. As most newly qualified teachers know, in that first year, you’re barely able to look after your own mental health, nevermind that of the 30 pupils you’re in charge of.

It wasn’t until February 2019 that we started to see a change when the government introduced ‘ Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education ’ to schools. But, are 'wellbeing' and 'mindfulness' becoming meaningless buzzwords with a lack of connection to the true intent behind a holistic approach to learning?

What does the RSE curriculum say about mental health?

that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health

that there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different experiences and situations

how to recognise and talk about their emotions, including having a varied vocabulary of words to use when talking about their own and others’ feelings

how to judge whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and proportionate

the benefits of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation, voluntary and service-based activity on mental wellbeing and happiness

simple self-care techniques, including the importance of rest, time spent with friends and family and the benefits of hobbies and interests

isolation and loneliness can affect children and that it is very important for children to discuss their feelings with an adult and seek support

that bullying (including cyberbullying) has a negative and often lasting impact on mental wellbeing

where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support), including whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions (including issues arising online). It is common for people to experience mental ill health. For many people who do, the problems can be resolved if the right support is made available, especially if accessed early enough

how to talk about their emotions accurately and sensitively, using appropriate vocabulary

that happiness is linked to being connected to others

how to recognise the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns

common types of mental ill health (e.g. anxiety and depression)

how to critically evaluate when something they do or are involved in has a positive or negative effect on their own or others’ mental health

the benefits and importance of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation and voluntary and service-based activities on mental wellbeing and happiness

From statutory guidance - Physical health and mental wellbeing (Primary and secondary)

Mental health in schools - the present day  

Teaching mental health in schools is increasingly recognised as crucial in England, outlined in the government document ' Keeping Children Safe in Education '. Despite the challenges, such as teachers' existing workload, schools have a duty to promote students' mental health and wellbeing. To address this, the government plans to have senior mental health leads in all schools by 2025 to oversee support provision and reduce the strain on teachers.

Recent discussions about mental health support in schools have been influenced by a report from a coalition of UK schools, including notable institutions like Eton College and Star Academies. This coalition, formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlights the need for national waiting time standards for child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs). They stress that while a positive school culture and social-emotional learning are important, these alone are not sufficient. An effective approach must combine these with structured educational components in personal, social, and health education​​. How can you teach it in the meantime?

1. Create a safe and inclusive environment:

It is essential to create an inclusive classroom environment where all students feel comfortable discussing mental health. Make sure you establish clear boundaries and expectations, so students feel safe and secure. Weekly debate topics provided by VotesforSchools can help your pupils be in the habit of open discussions around topics like young carers , misogyny and LGBTQ+ representation in the media .

2. Start with the basics:

Start by discussing what mental health is and why it's important. This will lay the foundation for more in-depth discussions. Expect to hear words like ‘crazy’, ‘psycho’ and ‘lunatic’ and be prepared to discuss the meaning and impact of these words. Be mindful of the fact that some of your pupils will know very little about mental health and others will have lived experience with either themselves or family members. Netflix now has trigger warnings for certain topics, for example. These issues can bring up difficult memories or emotions in your students. Be prepared and approach them with sensitivity.

3. Use age-appropriate language:

Use age-appropriate language when discussing mental health with younger students. This will help them understand the concepts better and feel less intimidated. In Primary schools, it’s good to focus on the changes we see in our bodies that can be connected to our thoughts and feelings. For example, when our heart beats very quickly after playing outside, our heart can also beat very quickly when we’re feeling worried or scared.

4. Use interactive teaching methods:

Engage students with interactive teaching methods, such as role-playing, group discussions, or creative activities, to keep the topic interesting and relevant. Be clever about this, in particular with secondary aged children, give your pupils a voice . Don’t just arrive with an activity and expect that you’ll incite conversation around deep topics. Consider a suggestion box for your students to place anonymous tips for topics they would like to discuss. A carousel activity could be helpful, with different areas of the classroom set up to approach different aspects of mental health, giving your students the freedom to explore topics independently first

5. Encourage self-care practices:

Encourage self-care practices such as exercise, meditation, and healthy eating habits, which are essential for maintaining good mental health. But remember - this isn’t a quick fix and needs to be one aspect of a wider mental health curriculum.

6.Teach coping strategies:

Teach students different coping strategies that can help them manage stress and anxiety. Such as the self-care practices above or another effective approach is to teach children problem-solving skills, such as breaking down complex problems into smaller, more manageable steps. This can help students feel more empowered and capable of dealing with difficult situations, rather than becoming overwhelmed or helpless.

7. Normalise seeking help:

Normalise seeking help by discussing the importance of seeking support from trusted adults, like parents, teachers, learning mentors or counsellors. However, be prepared to be met with resistance. The online counselling service ‘ Better Help ’ says that when searching for a therapist, it is important to take into account your cultural background and specific concerns. If we understand that adults need somebody to talk to who is suited to their needs, we must do our best to ensure there are a variety of different role models in schools to suit the needs of our pupils.

8. Address stigma:

Address the stigma around mental health issues, and encourage students to be empathetic and supportive towards their peers who may be struggling. Keep all conversations open and non judgemental. If a child comes to you for help, offer empathy and understanding rather than solutions. Our lessons on boundaries and consent could be a good starting point to approach such topics.

9. Provide resources:

Provide students with access to resources, such as hotlines, websites, and support groups, that can help them or their loved ones access help when needed. With each tricky topic that we cover at VotesforSchools, we create a Home Information Sheet for young people with all the information they need to get support if they’ve been affected by an issue. Just like adults, young people need time to consider what they have learned and how they want to act on it, so providing take-away resources such as these sheets means they’ve got the info on hand if they need it.

10. Take care of yourself:

Teaching mental health can be emotionally challenging, so make sure you take care of yourself by practising self-care and seeking support when needed. Afterall, you cannot take care of other people if you are not well yourself. These 10 tips on tackling teacher burnout are a great starting point to helping your own mental health and wellbeing and remember to use whatever help is available for you!

Looking for lessons on mental health?

VotesforSchools lessons cover a wide range of topics within the RSE curriculum, such as dealing with loss & bereavement, the effect of the internet on sex & relationships and how burnout can affect young people. As well as teaching young people about these issues, we ask for their feedback and ensure that their voices are heard by organisations across the world. You can find out more about the programme here , and trial some of our lessons for use in your school.

Former primary school teacher and current Marketing Executive at VotesforSchools. Rachael has spent years educating herself on the topic of children's mental health. Both her training and lived experiences have made her extremely passionate about helping teachers approach the issue of mental health in schools.

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Why Mental Health Education in Schools is So Important?

By joe mclean | published 2/1/2019 14.

Mental health issues often begin during the school-age years. Therefore, it is important that mental health education is offered in schools. (Photo source: Adobe Stock Photos)

With the prevalence of mental health issues in our society, it’s astounding that we still tend to stigmatize mental illness . Many mental health misconceptions still exist.

Mental health issues often begin during the school-age years. It follows, therefore, that education about mental health should to also start at an early age. Because children spend so much of their daily life at school, mental health education logically should begin in schools.

Some facts about mental illness

Millions of people globally are affected by mental illness. In America, an estimated one in five adults experiences mental illness in a given year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health .  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in five children in the U.S. currently have, or at some stage have had, a debilitating mental illness.  Fifty percent of mental illness begins by the age of 14, according to the American Psychiatric Association .

Depression is on the rise

Mental illness, particularly depression, is predicted to become one of the major health burdens in the future. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Over 300 million people of all ages suffer from depression.

As childhood and adolescent mental health disorders are so common, it’s baffling that we are not equipping our children with an understanding of mental health.

Undiagnosed, inadequately treated or untreated mental illness can seriously affect their ability to learn and grow. It can lead to negative coping mechanisms and at worst, may result in suicide.

Opportunities for mental health education in schools

The breaking down of stigma and misconceptions about mental illness has to start in schools. School is where friendships begin. It is where teens hone their sense of self-worth.

It’s also the place where children need to learn that their behavior towards others can cause serious self-worth issues. Many students experience conflicts, bullying and social exclusion at school.

Alex Crotty was only eleven when she started feeling miserable all the time. She felt disconnected from other children and empty. She suffered alone and even switched schools, but that did not help. It was only when she was 14 that she told her mother what was going on.

She was diagnosed with major depression and anxiety and was able to receive treatment. Her story reveals the difficulty young people experience when it comes to speaking out about their depression or anxiety.

Anxiety symptoms in children are often minimized or ignored

In the school environment, children face many challenges. Some are better at managing these than others.

Many children feel anxious, ranging from mild symptoms to more severe forms, such as panic attacks. When these symptoms are ignored, they can lead to depression, lack of performance and increased risk of substance abuse.

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The Importance of Teaching Health in High School

We Need a Focus on Mental Health, Not Just Violence, In Schools

The teen suicide epidemic

The Netflix show “ 13 Reasons Why ” is currently in its second season. Teenager Hannah Baker is a victim of gossip, bullying, rape and body shaming. She commits suicide and leaves behind 13 tapes explaining why.

The show has many detractors, including health awareness professionals and parents who believe that it offers very little insight into the psychology of suicide. They believe it highlights just how bad things can get and how cruel teenagers can be and may even contribute to new ways for teens to think about suicide.

All of these criticisms may be fair, but the show has certainly provoked dialogue about the epidemic of teenage suicide, a very real problem. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 24 in the U.S.

The influence of social media on mental health

Current research indicates a possible connection between increased social media use and mental health although it’s still unclear exactly how they are connected. What is clear is that young adults are the most active users.

Some studies show that online connections to small groups of people may be beneficial, while other research indicates a connection with anxiety, depression and eating disorders. With no long-term studies having been completed, we are still largely guessing at its influence.

The upside of social media is that teens are hardwired to socialize, and social media makes it easy and immediate. Teens in marginalized groups may find it easier to make friends and find support.

The downside of social media is that those using social media may be faced with many negatives such as toxic comparisons, cyberbullying and less face-to-face interactions. Someone’s reputation can be destroyed in minutes and face the consequences for years.

The importance of early intervention

Family, friends, teachers, and individuals themselves often notice small changes in thinking and behavior before a mental illness appears in the full-blown form. Learning about early warning signs, and taking action can help.

It can reduce the severity of the illness, and it may even be possible to prevent or delay the development of a major mental illness. Some of these signs are apathy, feelings of disconnection, nervousness, unusual behavior, withdrawal, mood changes and a drop in performance.

ADD_THIS_TEXT  

Mental health awareness in schools

In an article written by Nancy Barile, M.A.Ed. on the importance of mental health awareness in schools, she relates how she noticed some drastic changes in one of her students over a short period of time.

The student no longer did her homework, and she would come to school in the same clothes, although she’d previously been meticulous about her appearance. She was withdrawn and distant when Barile tried to speak to her.

Barile had some training in mental health issues and recognized that the student was in trouble. Social workers on the staff were able to speak to the student and found that she was depressed, suicidal and in need of immediate psychiatric intervention.

She was admitted to the hospital for a short while, given medication and therapy and managed to graduate with her class.

Mental health education should be part of the curriculum

We need to be working towards a school environment where students are able to recognize when they’re dealing with mental health issues and feel they can ask for help.

79% of British parents feel that mental health education should be a part of the curriculum in schools. Across the globe, parents understand the need for mental health education for children. With 50% of mental health conditions developing in children of age 14 or below, the support for the cause is growing rapidly.

Adding mental health education to the curriculum

Open lines of communication between home and school should exist where parents are able to share their concerns about their children and collaborate with teachers to address them.

Just as physical education is part of the curriculum in schools, mental health awareness and education should be too. Our children spend most of their day at school. We need to empower them with knowledge about mental illness.

Related content: A Back-To-School Checklist for Children with Special Needs Five Tips for an Effective Health Education Curriculum

Progress is being made

A growing number of schools are beginning to realize the importance of mental health education. They are working to create an environment where mental health issues are recognized and support is offered.

School-employed mental health professionals work with teachers to provide support and with parents to better understand students’ needs and implement appropriate support.

In July 2018, New York became the first state in the U.S. to require mental health education for all students. The School Mental Health program will promote the healthy emotional, social, and behavioral development of all the students. 

It will also take into account the general well-being of school staff and families, and collaborate with other student support and services. Mental health needs will be assessed, and access will be provided to mental health services and programs.

What do we know about the effectiveness of these programs?

As reported in US News and World Report , a few small studies have found “that teaching high school students about mental health improved their attitudes toward treatment, increased willingness to seek help from a counselor and boosted their overall mental health literacy.”  There is a pressing need for more studies to determine programs’ effectiveness and identify ways to improve them.

Mental health education is not yet mandatory in schools. Until it is, teachers and administrators need to help shine the light on the concept of self-care. And, they need to emphasize the fact that mental health is an integral part of health.

THE BOTTOM LINE

A cultural shift in attitudes about mental health needs to start with the young. The only way they’re going to understand more about mental health and stop stigmatizing is if they receive the necessary education.

Schools need to foster an environment in schools where mental health issues can be identified and addressed without being stigmatized. Awareness should be raised about mental health crises, such as self-harm, substance abuse, eating disorders and other negative coping behavior needs to be created.

If everyone in schools is empowered with knowledge, and dialogue is encouraged, students will have the freedom to open up about what they are going through. This will allow them to get the support they need before it’s too late.

Making mental health education a mandatory part of the school curriculum is long overdue. 

• family & relationships
• mental health

Joe McLean, taught high school students for many years and has a particular interest in mental health. This interest developed when his son started experiencing severe panic attacks in high school. He is currently studying for his masters in psychology and writes for Assignment Masters when he’s not studying. In the little time he has left for relaxation, he loves hiking and traveling to interesting new places.

Thank you for talking about this and do not be afraid of condemnation from the same parents. It seems to me that now many people have finally begun to think about the fact that there are problems not only physical but also psychological. Now this question has become more often publicized and more people are beginning to talk about the fact that they also have similar problems. There is nothing wrong with this because the more people talk about it, the more people do not feel lonely and understand that other people have similar problems.

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Mental Health Classes: Should they be Required in Schools?

Mikaela Peralta , Editor November 16, 2018

The question about requiring mental health classes in schools has been brought to the public’s attention due to bullying, student suicides, and the numerous school shootings that have taken place in the past year.

Many parents and teachers believe that the enforcement of mental health classes in school would help prevent such acts of violence amongst students. However, required classes that focus on mental health may actually have the opposite effect.

When students are forced or obligated to do something, they may go against it simply because adolescents tend to clash with authority, meaning that students may not take the class seriously. However, if the idea of mental health would be promoted throughout the school through things like posters, boards, meeting, etc, students would still be exposed to it without being forced to learn about it on the daily.  

If, for example, there were to be a mental health class that would discuss typical issues amongst students and solutions to those issues, the students in the class may not have their issues discussed and may not be comfortable discussing it amongst their classmates.

Every person is different from the other and may have different ways of effectively coping with their problems, of which may not be listed in the curriculum. Rather than providing mental health classes, schools could promote professional therapy, which would be more efficient than in-school guidance, so students would not have to be so open about their problems in an environment of which they may not be comfortable.

The main focus of school should be education and preparation for the future. Adding another required class to a students’ schedule may prevent a student from taking a class that they are interested in, or that educates them for an occupation those students consider obtaining in the future.

There are further statements arguing that classes could still take place, however, they would be optional. The issue with optional mental health classes would be that the students may be outcasted by other students which may give them a hard time.

Mental health is definitely something that should be of concern in a school environment, however, promoting awareness of mental health, therapy, holding anti-bullying seminars, or even taking a few minutes of the beginning of the school day to hold a brief meditation would have a great effect on the students’ knowledge on mental health.

Mikaela Peralta is a senior currently attending Woodbridge High School, a steady AP student, and has been working for the Barron Perspective Newspaper...

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Are We Talking Too Much About Mental Health?

Recent studies cast doubt on whether large-scale mental health interventions are making young people better. Some even suggest they can have a negative effect.

By Ellen Barry

In recent years, mental health has become a central subject in childhood and adolescence. Teenagers narrate their psychiatric diagnosis and treatment on TikTok and Instagram. School systems, alarmed by rising levels of distress and self-harm, are introducing preventive coursework in emotional self-regulation and mindfulness.

Now, some researchers warn that we are in danger of overdoing it. Mental health awareness campaigns, they argue, help some young people identify disorders that badly need treatment — but they have a negative effect on others, leading them to over-interpret their symptoms and see themselves as more troubled than they are.

The researchers point to unexpected results in trials of school-based mental health interventions in the United Kingdom and Australia: Students who underwent training in the basics of mindfulness , cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy did not emerge healthier than peers who did not participate, and some were worse off, at least for a while.

And new research from the United States shows that among young people, “self-labeling” as having depression or anxiety is associated with poor coping skills, like avoidance or rumination.

In a paper published last year , two research psychologists at the University of Oxford, Lucy Foulkes and Jack Andrews, coined the term “prevalence inflation” — driven by the reporting of mild or transient symptoms as mental health disorders — and suggested that awareness campaigns were contributing to it.

“It’s creating this message that teenagers are vulnerable, they’re likely to have problems, and the solution is to outsource them to a professional,” said Dr. Foulkes, a Prudence Trust Research Fellow in Oxford’s department of experimental psychology, who has written two books on mental health and adolescence.

Until high-quality research has clarified these unexpected negative effects, they argue, school systems should proceed cautiously with large-scale mental health interventions.

“It’s not that we need to go back to square one, but it’s that we need to press pause and reroute potentially,” Dr. Foulkes said. “It’s possible that something very well-intended has overshot a bit and needs to be brought back in.”

This remains a minority view among specialists in adolescent mental health, who mostly agree that the far more urgent problem is lack of access to treatment.

About 60 percent of young Americans with severe depression receive no treatment, according to Mental Health America, a nonprofit research group. In crisis, desperate families fall back on emergency rooms, where teens often remain for days before a psychiatric bed opens up. There is good reason to embrace a preventive approach, teaching schoolchildren basic skills that might forestall crises later, experts say.

Dr. Foulkes said she understood that her argument runs counter to that consensus, and when she began to present it, she braced for a backlash. To her surprise, she said, many educators reached out to express quiet agreement.

“There’s definitely a fear about being the one to say it,” she said.

A deflating result

In the summer of 2022, the results of a landmark study on mindfulness training in British classrooms landed — like a lead balloon.

The trial, My Resilience in Adolescence, or MYRIAD, was ambitious, meticulous and expansive, following about 28,000 teenagers over eight years. It had been launched in a glow of optimism that the practice would pay off, improving the students’ mental health outcomes in later years.

Half of the teenagers were trained by their teachers to direct their attention to the present moment — breathing, physical sensations or everyday activities — in 10 lessons of 30 to 50 minutes apiece.

The results were disappointing . The authors reported “no support for our hypothesis” that mindfulness training would improve students’ mental health. In fact, students at highest risk for mental health problems did somewhat worse after receiving the training, the authors concluded.

But by the end of the eight-year project, “mindfulness is already embedded in a lot of schools, and there are already organizations making money from selling this program to schools,” said Dr. Foulkes, who had assisted on the study as a postdoctoral research associate. “And it’s very difficult to get the scientific message out there.”

Why, one might ask, would a mental health program do harm?

Researchers in the study speculated that the training programs “bring awareness to upsetting thoughts,” encouraging students to sit with darker feelings, but without providing solutions, especially for societal problems like racism or poverty. They also found that the students didn’t enjoy the sessions and didn’t practice at home.

Another explanation is that mindfulness training could encourage “co-rumination,” the kind of long, unresolved group discussion that churns up problems without finding solutions.

As the MYRIAD results were being analyzed, Dr. Andrews led an evaluation of Climate Schools, an Australian intervention based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy, in which students observed cartoon characters navigating mental health concerns and then answered questions about practices to improve mental health.

Here, too, he found negative effects. Students who had taken the course reported higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms six months and 12 months later.

Co-rumination appears to be higher in girls, who tend to come into the program more distressed, as well as more attuned to their friends, he said. “It might be,” he said, “that they kind of get together and make things a little bit worse for each other.”

Dr. Andrews, a Wellcome Trust research fellow, has since joined an effort to improve Climate Schools by addressing negative effects. And he has concluded that schools should slow down until “we know the evidence base a bit more.” Sometimes, he said, “doing nothing is better than doing something.”

The awareness paradox

One problem with mental health awareness, some research suggests, is that it may not help to put a label to your symptoms.

Isaac Ahuvia, a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University, recently tested this in a study of 1,423 college students . Twenty-two percent “self-labeled” as having depression, telling researchers “I am depressed” or “I have depression,” but 39 percent met the diagnostic criteria for depression.

He found that the students who self-labeled felt that they had less control over depression and were more likely to catastrophize and less likely to respond to distress by putting their difficulties in perspective, compared with peers who had similar depression symptoms.

Jessica L. Schleider, a co-author of the self-labeling study, said this was no surprise. People who self-label “appear to be viewing depression as a biological inevitability,” she said. “People who don’t view emotions as malleable, view them as set and stuck and uncontrollable, tend to cope less well because they don’t see a point to trying.”

But Dr. Schleider, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University and the director of the university’s Lab for Scalable Mental Health, pushed back on the prevalence inflation hypothesis. She disagreed with the claim that students are overdiagnosing themselves, noting that Mr. Ahuvia’s findings suggest otherwise.

Awareness campaigns are bound to have multiple effects, helping some students and not others. And ultimately, she argued, the priority for public health should be reaching young people in the most distress.

“The urgency of the mental health crisis is so clear,” she said. “In the partnerships that I have, the emphasis is on the kids truly struggling right now who have nothing — we need to help them — more so than a possible risk for a subset of kids who aren’t really struggling.”

Maybe, she said, we need to look beyond the “universal, school-assembly-style approach,” to targeted, light-touch interventions, which research has shown can be effective at decreasing anxiety and conduct disorders, especially in younger children.

“There is a risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Dr. Schleider said. “The response can’t be ‘Forget all of it.’ It should be ‘What about this intervention was unhelpful?’”

Other researchers echoed her concern, pointing to studies that show that on average, students benefit from social and emotional learning courses.

One of the largest, a 2023 meta-analysis of 252 classroom programs in 53 countries, found that students who participated performed better academically, displayed better social skills and had lower levels of emotional distress or behavioral problems. In that context, negative effects in a handful of trials appear modest, the researchers said.

“We clearly have not figured out how to do them yet, but I can’t imagine any population-based intervention that the field got right the first time,” said Dr. Andrew J. Gerber, the president and medical director of Silver Hill Hospital and a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist.

“Really, if you think about almost everything we do in schools, we don’t have great evidence for it working,” he added. “That doesn’t mean we don’t do it. It just means that we’re constantly thinking about ways to improve it.”

‘We want everyone to have it’

These debates are taking place a long way away from classrooms, where mental health curriculums are increasingly commonplace.

Allyson Kangisser, a counselor at Woodsdale Elementary School in Wheeling, W.Va., said the focus in her school is on basic coping skills. In the early grades, students are asked, “What things can you do to take care of yourself when you’re having big feelings?”

Starting in third grade, they take on more complex material, such as watching cartoon characters to distinguish transient stress from chronic conditions like depression. “We’re not trying to have them diagnose themselves,” Ms. Kangisser said. “We are saying, what do you feel — this one? Or this one?”

At the school’s sixth annual mental health fair last month, Woodsdale students walked through a giant inflatable brain, its lobes neatly labeled. They did yoga stretches and talked about regulating their emotions. Ms. Kangisser said the event is valuable precisely because it is universal, so troubled children are not singled out.

“The mental health fair, everybody does it,” she said. “It’s not ‘You need it, and you don’t.’ We want everyone to have it, because you just never know.”

By the time the students reach college, they will have absorbed enormous amounts of information about mental health — from school, but also from social media and from one another.

Dr. Jessica Gold, chief wellness officer for the University of Tennessee system, said the college students she sees are recognizably different — more comfortable speaking about their emotions and more willing to be vulnerable. They also overuse diagnostic terms and have the self-assurance to question a psychiatrist’s judgment.

“It’s sort of a double-edged sword,” she said. “We want people to talk about this more, but we don’t want that to lead to overdiagnosis or incorrect diagnosis or overtreatment. We want it to lead to normalizing of having feelings.”

Lucy Kim, a Yale senior who has lobbied for better mental health support on campus, described the prevalence inflation hypothesis as “disheartening, dismissive and potentially dangerous,” providing another way to discount the experiences of young people.

“As a college student, I see a generation of young people around me impacted by a depth and breadth of loneliness, exhaustion and disillusionment suggestive of a malaise that goes deeper than the general vicissitudes of life,” said Ms. Kim, 23.

Overdiagnosis does happen, she said, and so does glorification of mental health disorders. But stigma and barriers to treatment remain the bigger problem. “I can confidently say I have never heard anyone respond to disclosures of depression with ‘That’s so cool, I wish I had that, too,’” she said.

Ellen Barry is a reporter covering mental health for The Times. More about Ellen Barry

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Persuasive Speech Topics About Mental Health

Persuasive Speech Topics About Mental Health : Mental health is an important issue that affects us in one way or another. Currently, there are many factors that affect our mental health. If you are carrying out a study on mental health or you are looking for a speech topic, we have compiled Persuasive Speech Topics About Mental Health that can help you develop a good speech to provide more information about mental health .

1. How mental health can be improved through positive peer groups

2. Lack of mental health awareness is promoting poor mental issues for people living in low-income areas

3. Mental health treatment should be made less complex and more affordable.

4. Family history and its effects on mental health

5. Mental illness stigmatization as a barrier to mental health recovery

6. Financial constraints and how they lead to lower chances of someone seeking therapeutic treatment

Read: Research Topics on Mental Health

7. Why Socio-cultural influences are one of the barriers to mental health treatment in developing countries

8. Reasons why social media is one of the causes of anxiety disorder among the young people

9. Students should be taught how to develop good mental health habits

10. Bullying should be well addresses to lower anxiety among students

11. Increased mental health cases portray failure in social responsibility by governments

12. More government funding for healthy mental awareness can lower depression.

13. Drug addiction can lead to mental health issues

Read: Argumentative Essay Topics about Mental Health

14. Technology can be used to enhance mental health services

15. Importance for individuals and communities to prioritize self-care and build resilience to manage mental health issues

Mental Health Persuasive Speech Topics

1. Elementary schools should provide cognitive health services

2. Common mental illness among the elderly

3. Best way to develop good mental health

4. How to deal with mental health issues among students

5. Government should be involved in creating self-awareness of mental health

6. Brain injuries and how they affect mental health

7. The relation between mental health and economic well being

8. Compared to women, men have more psychological issues

9. Extreme high parental expectations can lead to anxiety in their children

10. Social media addiction can lead to mental instability

11. How psychiatric screening procedures can be used lower mental health issues

Read: Christian Persuasive Speech Topics

Persuasive Essay Topics About Mental Health

1. Divorce and how it can cause childhood depression

2. Lack of basic needs among the homeless and how it affects their psychological health

3. The relationship between metabolic disorder and psychiatrist disorder

4. How untreated trauma can cause cognitive problems

5. Stress management can prevent psychiatric conditions

6. Treatment of psychiatric disorders through dietary measures.

7. The link between child abuse and mental disorder

8. How Mental Health Affects Your Everyday Life.

Read: LGBT Persuasive Essay Topics

9. Mental Illness Essay Topics on Argumentative

10. Obesity affects mental health.

11. Role of genes in psychological health

12. Firefighters are prone to develop anxiety attacks

13. Why it is important to understand the subconscious mind and self-knowledge

14. Hormonal levels in women and how they affect their mental health

15. Sleep disorder is a factor that affects mental health

16. Negative sides effects of mental health medication and how they affect its treatment

Read: Persuasive Speech Topics about Music

Conclusion: Persuasive Speech Topics About Mental Health

As you develop your persuasive speech on mental health, remember that this kind of speech requires a clear presentation of logical facts to influence your audience’s point of view. To do this you need to select a topic that you are well conversant of and one that can allow you to carry out enough study. 

Betty is a qualified teacher with a Bachelor of Education (Arts). In addition, she is a registered Certified Public Accountant. She has been teaching and offering part-time accounting services for the last 10 years. She is passionate about education, accounting, writing, and traveling.

• Made by History

To Address the Teen Mental Health Crisis, Look to School Nurses

I t’s a deadly time to be a teenager. The most recent CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey reports that in 2021, more than one-fifth of high schoolers seriously considered committing suicide. Worse, 10% tried. Even without pandemic data , rates of youth depression almost doubled over the past decade, making youth mental health a current top priority for the U.S. Surgeon General .

There are already people on the front lines to combat this teen mental health crisis : school nurses, the trusted healthcare professionals who provide holistic care for every student’s physical and mental wellbeing . But because our culture routinely separates mental health from physical health care , school nurses are commonly overlooked when funding is recommended to increase school behavioral health staff. Additionally, since school nurse positions are rarely protected by mandates, their services are too often the first to be cut when trimming education budgets. And yet, history shows that school absenteeism declines, and the collective health of our nation improves, when schools employ nurses. That remains true as we ask questions about how to address the mental health crisis youth face today.

The position of school nurse was created at the turn of the 20th century. The idea was that nurses placed in primary schools could help treat and prevent communicable diseases so that children could stay in school and receive an education. In 1902, pediatric nurse Lina Rogers became New York’s—and our nation’s—first school nurse. Funded by the Henry Street Settlement , Rogers set up clinics in four schools to care for the district’s students, all of whom lived in poverty with their families in the tenements of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Read More: To Solve the U.S. Nursing Shortage Crisis, the Country Must Change Its Immigration Policies

Drawn there by the promise of opportunity, large numbers of immigrants faced health and hygiene challenges in this densely populated area. Living conditions were overcrowded, unsanitary, and full of contagious diseases, which children then spread throughout classrooms. Before school nursing, instead of being treated, sick children were simply excluded from school . And since most parents couldn’t afford or couldn't access care, many students never returned.

Rogers’ impact was immediate . By the end of her first month, Rogers treated 829 cases, including 93 excluded students who were then able to return to school. The results were so impressive that the New York Board of Health immediately funded 12 more school nurses, each responsible for approximately 10,000 students. Between September 1902 and 1903, the combined work of these school nurses caused the number of students missing school for medical reasons to plummet from 10,567 students to 1,101. Over the next five years, health officials in other major cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Chicago, followed suit.

During the next few decades, the school nurse model was replicated throughout the country. By 1911, over 100 cities employed school nurses. Historical databases highlight the positive influence of school nursing during the 1918 influenza pandemic as far reaching as Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. By the years after World War II, healthcare delivery was shifting from home-based to hospital. This, combined with the discovery of multiple classes of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, shifted the school nurse role to focus more on health education over treatment, with emphasis on cleanliness, good nutrition, dental care, and sleep—the beginnings of the Coordinated School Health Program model used today .

Then came widespread vaccination thanks to the 1962 Vaccination Assistance Act , which led to the practical eradication of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, smallpox, and measles. By 1980, every U.S. state required children to be vaccinated to enroll in school. Through the use of state registries to maintain records, facilitate vaccine compliance, and identify at-risk unvaccinated students during disease outbreaks, school nurses were and are at the very heart of this progress in communicable disease prevention.

Legal changes also affected the relationship between school nursing and youth wellness. The passage of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and The Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 helped clarify that all students were entitled to and worthy of a public education. Disabled children were mainstreamed into traditional school systems with individual health plans (IHPs), student-specific plans of care created by the school nurse. While IHPs made the school nurse role more personalized, they also made nursing services less visible, as most of the individualized care became clinic based, hidden from school administrators and any parent whose child didn’t have an IHP. “Parents whose children benefit from daily school nursing—like those with diabetes and asthma —know it’s school nurses who enable their children to remain in school and focus on learning,” explained Suzanne Winefordner, RN, a Virginia-based school nurse.

This hidden healthcare put nursing positions on the chopping block during education budget cuts —despite the fact that 40% of school-aged children have a chronic health condition—resulting in widespread school nurse disparities throughout the country. Rural communities remain disproportionately affected with only 56.2% employing a full-time school nurse compared to 70.3% of their urban counterparts.

Read More: Why U.K. Nurses Voted to Strike for the First Time Ever—and What That Means for Hospitals

The COVID-19 pandemic elucidated these gaps when school nurses were brought to the forefront of this public health emergency. For schools lucky enough to have a nurse, these RNs were heralded as key players in stopping the virus’s spread in schools and communities , reminding society that they stand ready to battle widespread disease. But, assisting with mitigating the risk of medical contagions is only one aspect of the school nurse role in population health. RNs also have the skills to address the mental health crisis.

“Too often, schools silo student mental health to the counselor,” says Yale professor Joanne Iennaco, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with a Ph.D. in chronic disease epidemiology. “Instead, the school nurse must be considered an integral member of a school’s behavioral health care team. ”

The skyrocketing rates of adolescent depression disproportionately affect girls , LGBTQ youth , and Black teens . As experts debate what to do, from limiting social media and smartphone usage to reducing stress , adolescent mental health continues to suffer. “Depression is treatable , especially when caught early ,” Dr. Iennaco explains. And since 50% of mental illnesses begin by age 14 , “this high-risk zone for developing psychiatric illness is where a professional school nurse can make all the difference with early assessment and care coordination.”

With over 22% of youth in the U.S. meeting criteria for a mental disorder with severe impairment across a lifetime, school nurses like Winefordner are doing this work already. “Students often start with me,” she reflects, “because there isn’t any stigma associated with visiting the school nurse. Plus, I usually have a previously established relationship with them, so they feel comfortable with me as a trusted adult.”

Winefordner’s experience aligns with the National Association of School Nurses Position Statement on student behavioral health: “school nurses are often the initial access point to identify concerns, determine interventions, and link families to school and/or community resources.”

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory Report recommends the expansion of school-based mental health workforce through federal funds to increase staff, including nurses. Full-time nurses currently cover only 65.7% of public schools . Passing the One School, One Nurse Act , a bill that would provide every public school in America with a full-time RN, would be a cost-effective, equitable, and efficient way to shore up the remaining front line. When school nurses have proven themselves time and time again as integral to combating public health emergencies, why turn away from them now? School nurses are the "vaccine" needed to target the youth mental health crisis, and every student deserves access to one.

Sherrie Page Guyer, MSN, RN, a former school nurse, holds a master’s degree in mental health nursing from Yale University and is currently enrolled in the doctor of nursing practice program at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.

Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here . Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors .

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100+ argumentative essay topics on mental health | example & outline, bob cardens.

• September 2, 2022
• Essay Topics and Ideas

Argumentative Essay Topics on Mental Health. Mental health is an important and often overlooked topic. In this article, we’ll explore some argumentative essay topics related to mental health .

As you continue,  thestudycorp.com  has the top and most qualified writers to help with any of your assignments. All you need to do is  place an order  with us.

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Argumentative Essay Topics about Mental Health

1. Is there a connection between mental health and physical health? 2. How does mental illness affect a person’s ability to function in society? 3. What are the most effective treatments for mental illness? 4. Are there any effective prevention strategies for mental illness? 5. What is the relationship between mental health and substance abuse? 6. How does poverty affect mental health? 7. What are the most common mental disorders? 8. What are the consequences of untreated mental illness? 9. What are the risk factors for developing mental illness? 10. How can mental illness be effectively diagnosed?

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Argumentative essay topics about depression

1. Depression is a real mental health condition.

2. Depression is more than just feeling sad.

3. Depression can lead to serious physical health problems.

4. Depression is treatable with medication and therapy.

5. People with depression can lead happy, fulfilling lives.

6. Untreated depression can be deadly.

7. Depression is often misunderstood and stigmatized.

8. Depression is not a sign of weakness or a character flaw.

9. Anyone can develop depression, even people who seem to have it all together.

10. There is no single cause of depression, but there are risk factors that can make someone more likely to develop the condition.

Argumentative Essay Topics on Mental Health. Mental health is an important and often overlooked topic. In this article, we’ll explore some argumentative essay topics related to mental health.

Argumentative essay about mental health in schools

1. Mental health should be taught in schools. 2. There should be more support for mental health in schools. 3. Mental health should be taken more seriously in schools. 4. Schools should do more to prevent mental health problems. 5. Schools should do more to help students with mental health problems. 6. Mental health problems are increasing in schools. 7. school counselors are not trained to deal with mental health issues 8. most school don’t have a mental health policy 9. lack of awareness about mental health among school staff 10. stigma and discrimination against mental health patients

Argumentative essay on mental health stigma

Argumentative essay topics about mental health can be very controversial and sensitive. However, there are many people who are open to discussing these topics and raising awareness about mental health. Here are twenty argumentative essay topics about mental health that you can use for your next essay.

1. How does society view mental health? 2. Do we need to break the stigma around mental health? 3. How can we better support those with mental health conditions? 4. What is the link between mental health and addiction? 5. How does trauma affect mental health? 6. What are the most effective treatments for mental health conditions? 7. Are there any natural remedies for mental health conditions? 8. How does diet affect mental health? 9. How does exercise affect mental health? 10. What is the link between sleep and mental health? 11. What are the warning signs of a mental health condition? 12. When should someone seek professional help for a mental health condition? 13. How can family and friends support someone with a mental health condition? 14. What are the most common myths about mental health? 15. How does stigma impact those with mental health conditions?

16. How can we destigmatize mental health? 17. What is the link between mental health and violence? 18. How does mental health affect overall health? 19. What are the most common mental health disorders? 20. What are the most effective treatments for mental health disorders?

Mental health debate topics for students

1. The definition of mental health 2. The different types of mental illness 3. The causes of mental illness 4. The treatments for mental illness 5. The side effects of mental illness 6. The impact of mental illness on society 7. The cost of mental health care 8. Mental health in the workplace 9. Mental health in the media 10. Stigma and discrimination against those with mental illness 11. The impact of trauma on mental health 12. Mental health during pregnancy and postpartum 13. Children’s mental health 14. Geriatric mental health 15. Global perspectives on mental health 16. Religion and mental health 17. Cultural competence in mental health care 18. Social media and mental health 19.Nutrition and mental health

20. Exercise and mental health

Expository essay topics about mental illness

1. How does mental illness affect one’s ability to work? 2. What are the most common types of mental illness? 3. How can mental illness be prevented? 4. What are the most effective treatments for mental illness? 5. How does mental illness impact relationships? 6. What are the financial costs of mental illness? 7. How does stigma affect those with mental illness? 8. What are the most common myths about mental illness? 9. How does mental illness differ from addiction? 10. What are the early warning signs of mental illness?

Debates about mental health

1. The definition of mental health is contested and argued by professionals in the field. 2. Some people argue that mental health is a social construction, while others believe that it is a real and valid medical condition. 3. Mental health is often stigmatized in society, and those who suffer from mental illness are often seen as weak or crazy. 4. Mental health is often viewed as something that can be cured, when in reality it is a lifelong battle for many people. 5. Mental illness is often seen as an individual responsibility to deal with, when in reality it affects not just the individual but also their families and loved ones. 6. It is often said that people with mental illness are not able to function in society, when in fact many people with mental illness are high-functioning individuals. 7. Mental health is often viewed as an all-or-nothing proposition, when in reality there is a spectrum of mental health conditions that range from mild to severe. 8. People with mental illness are often treated differently than other people, and they are often discriminated against. 9. There is a lot of misinformation about mental health, and this leads tomisunderstanding and fear. 10. Mental health is a complex issue, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to addressing it.

Persuasive topics related to mental health

1. The link between mental health and physical health. 2. The benefits of therapy and counseling. 3. The importance of early intervention for mental health issues. 4. The impact of trauma on mental health. 5. The correlation between mental health and substance abuse. 6. The connection between mental health and chronic illness. 7. The relationship between mental health and chronic pain. 8. Mental health in the workplace. 9. Mental health in the military. 10. Mental health in schools. 11. Children’s mental health issues. 12. Teens and mental health issues. 13. Elderly mental health issues. 14. Cultural issues and mental health. 15. Religion and mental health. 16. The stigma of mental illness. 17. Mental health awareness and education. 18. Mental health advocacy. 19. Funding for mental health services. 20. Access to mental health care.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, in search of persuasive speech topics.

Hi all! I have to give a persuasive speech in my public speaking class, but I'm struggling with picking a topic. I want something that's engaging and has enough material to research. What are some interesting persuasive speech topics that you'd recommend for a high school junior? Any help is much appreciated!

Hi! Picking a persuasive speech topic can be tricky; you'll want to find a subject that engages your audience and has enough information available for you to make a strong argument. It's essential to choose a topic that you find interesting and are passionate about, as this will make your speech more convincing and enjoyable for your audience. Here are a few ideas for persuasive speech topics that you might consider:

1. Climate Change: Argue for the importance of taking immediate action against climate change and the ways in which individuals, communities, and governments can make a difference.

2. Social Media: Discuss the impact of social media on mental health and whether it should be more tightly regulated to limit its negative effects, especially on young people.

3. College Tuition: Make a case for the implementation of free or affordable higher education, exploring the benefits of education accessibility for society as a whole.

4. Animal Rights: Advocate for stronger animal protection laws or the promotion of vegetarianism/veganism as more ethical and sustainable lifestyle choices.

5. Privacy: Argue for stronger privacy protections in the technological era, exploring the tension between individual privacy, data security, and government surveillance.

6. Gun Control: Debate the necessity for stricter gun control laws, examining the relationship between gun ownership, firearm-related incidents, and possible solutions.

7. Voting Age: Explore the possible benefits of lowering the voting age to 16, considering the potential impact on civic engagement and political involvement among younger generations.

8. Mental Health: Advocate for increased funding and attention to mental health initiatives in schools and communities, highlighting the importance of mental well-being and early intervention.

Remember to research your chosen topic thoroughly and gather strong evidence to support your argument. Good luck with your persuasive speech!

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