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Mental Illness In Public Schools

Decent Essays
Mental health is an issue that is relevant to everyone, no matter age or gender. It is a vital component in overall wellbeing and strongly ties in with physical well-being. However the current curriculum does not deem mental health as a priority despite 10% of people below the age of seventeen having a mental illness, and that’s only the diagnosed cases.

Mental illness affects people of all ages, although we still tend to associate things like depression and anxiety with a middle-aged person, we forget that teenagers and even young children can still be chronically depressed. Additionally, it leads to young people being unaware of the other aspects of health that aren’t necessarily physical. Currently, there isn’t substantial system in place designed to educate young people in identifying symptoms in themselves and others or the presence of mental illness in the modern world such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders etc. While teaching primary children, the quite frankly ugly, truth of bulimia would be more destructive that beneficial: educating people in high
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If you can identify the signs that something is wrong then you can get help for yourself or someone else sooner rather than later, whether it is from a friend, family member or a doctor. This is what “The Power of Okay” campaign is about, the importance of knowledge. It is an extremely effective campaign; it has a clear point and applies to the affected and the onlooker (these are split into two parts). And yet there is a problem: while the campaign is very effective, it is only related to adults, people who have already passed through the education and are now working full time. As a result, the message passes by younger people, who are not encouraged to see the warning signs in themselves and others. They are not taught “The Power of Okay”. This is a common theme amongst government campaigns about mental health; they only target that age
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