What Are The Challenges And Challenges Of Adolescent Mental Health

“Nearly 5 million children in the U.S. have some type of mental illness” (Goldberg). It is agreeable that there are many young children that deal with mental illness every day. Schools should be concerned for every student’s well being. Moreover, mental health is a part of a person’s overall “well being.” Therefore, schools need to make the mental health of students a stronger focus and implement plans to keep students mentally well and educated. To help create a positive, mental health aware environment where students feel open to seek help, high school students should be educated on how to be mentally healthy, be given a safe place to seek help, and be encouraged to monitor and maintain their mental health. Mental illness and mental health care need to be a more eminent priority in our society, starting with high schools.

Adolescence is a critical time of development. During this period there are significant changes in brain development, emotions, cognition, behavior, and personal relationships. It is during this time that most major mental health disorders appear, many of which carry over into adulthood. Behavior patterns such as substance abuse also often develop during this time and may continue throughout adulthood. Many adolescents struggling with mental health issues begin to exhibit symptoms such as acting out at home or in school, showing a decreased interest in activities that they previously enjoyed, or bringing home poor grades. Others ultimately are charged with offenses ranging from status

Adolescents today face a myriad of stressors in their lives that can impact who they are and who they will become. Bio-psychosocial stressors appear to be more prevalent in minority adolescents who reside in lower socioeconomic households. Impoverished neighborhoods experience a great deal of financial difficulties, crime, and single parent homes. Adolescents growing up in these households often have lower grades in school and a lack of self confidence verses their counterparts. Below these stressors will be discussed in greater detail.

With the prevention of mental and physical health difficulties and the advancement of well-being and health, there is emphasis on reducing the breach between mental health needs that are not met among youngsters and teenagers and operational evidence-based services to meet them (Rones and Hoagwood 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1999; U.S. Public Health Service 2000 as cited in Flaspohler, Meehan, Maras, & Keller, 2012). Despite evidence that school viciousness and other main problems among youth may have declined or leveled off, a significant need for effective prevention programming is still necessary. Current data suggests that of “11.3 % of young people in this country, about 7.4 million youth altogether, have at least one diagnosable emotional, behavioral, or developmental condition; 40 % of these youth are diagnosed with two or more of these conditions” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2010).

Numerous studies have demonstrated the impact of stress on the lives of youth. Adolescents are exposed to a plethora of stressors that range from family discord (Omizo, Omizo, & Suzuki, 1988) to peer relationships (Newcomb, Huba, & Bentler, 1986; Patterson & McCubbin, 1987) to economic hardships (Lempers, Clark-Lempers, & Simon, 1989). However, the most frequently reported stressors stem

The overall focus of this specialty group is on challenging thought processes and behaviors that contribute to maintaining anxiety and depression. The adolescents enrolled in this program receive group, individual, and family therapy. There is a strong psycho-educational component regarding diagnoses for both the teens and their families. Medication consultation takes place with a board certified child/adolescent psychiatrist. The school liaison works with the school professionals to provide additional information about the adolescent’s diagnosis and how it may affect school performance.

Many studies have proven that minor stresses can have a harmful impact on children more than the major stresses and can lead to some negative behaviors . children are more vulnerable to the daily stresses when there is a lack of emotion stability or social rejection for example a child who is rejected or ignored by his friends every day can suffer from devastating health problems because of an accumulations of the stresses and make resilience more difficult whereas children can overcome the major stress either during the time or with a caregiver assistance

Excluding mental disorders, stress can cause behavioral problems in general. Teens often react to stress through anger, disillusionment, distrust, low self-esteem, stomachaches, headaches, panic attacks, or rebellion (Romito par. 3). Other signs of stress include aggression, cooperation, tantrums, and withdrawal

The concept of focus that I will be working on is Mental Disorders and Health in Children and Adolescents. The population who are directly affected by mental disorders include: children and adolescents who are born with or develop a mental disorder soon after birth, along with family, friends, peers, etc. who may be indirectly affected by the mental disorder. The environment or population of those who are affected by mental disorders include the children or adolescent’s family at-home life, school, social or public gatherings like dining, vacations, etc. The indirect environments would be anywhere out of work or school. Any environment that is not aforementioned, but still indirectly affects the environment or population when comparing the

The first question examined by researchers is if an intervention program can evaluate the efficiency in lessening insecurity and stress, as well as improving the state of mental health struggles in adolescents. The second question investigated whom the intervention will work on, and the third question asked if the impacts are long-term. The researchers used a cohort study by comparing the rates of new mental illnesses in low trauma and high trauma cohort and

Mental health disorders are harder to diagnose in children and teens, but they often leave a lasting effect if not treated properly. The website www.mentalhealth.org.uk says that seventy percent of children do not recieve clincial treatment or intervention for a mental disorder. More times than not, mental health issues in adolescents are labeled by simply having inferior or sluggish attitudes. However, the same criteria can be described for an adult who suffers from a mental disorder such as anxiety or depression. As reported by www.youngminds.org.uk, one in ten young people (aged 5-16) suffer from a diagnosable psychological disorder, which averages to about three children in every school class. If continually disregarded, mental health problems in children can lead to poor academic performance, school dropout, strained family relationships, substance abuse, engaging in risky sexual behavior, and involvement in criminal

Stress is defined as the body’s response to events that threaten or challenge us. Many people start experiencing stress long before adolescence. Teenagers have expressed high levels of stress. Today, many teens face an overwhelming amount of stress. However, there is stress that is beneficial, called eustress. Eustress is when the body experiences stress from a positive event that isn’t necessarily negative to the person, but is beneficial to them. For instance, getting admitted to a college would be a situation where eustress is present. This event would cause a person to experience the immediate reaction to stress which helps the person be able to defend against a stressful situation and activates their flight or fight response. Although

Teen stress is a big issue in today's society. Recent studies have shown that teens may develop more stress then adults. Few adults can remember the truth about adolescence. "Their minds "censor" their memories, and have them believe that being a teenager was was one big party, free of cares and responsibilities"( ). There aren't that many adults around who realize what adolescence was really like. The anguish, the fear, the anxiety, the stress. People don't remember those problems because they want to forget them. Stress is a significant problem for teens. There are many factors that lead into teen stress, such as school, drugs, peer pressure and

The mental health of adolescents is fairly considered to be one of the major prerequisites of the country 's sustainable development in economics, culture, and social life. Subsequently, the easy and nondiscriminatory access to the psychological treatment appears to be a matter of top priority for the federal government. Nevertheless, the recent statistical data indicates the substantial problems in terms of providing the adolescents with the necessary medical support. In accordance with the US Department of Health & Human Services, in 2014, less than 50% of the country 's adolescent population were provided with a required treatment (US Department of Health & Human Services). Moreover, the data on the minorities ' access to the mental health treatment demonstrates that, for instance, African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to be prescribed a treatment from schizophrenia (American Psychological Association). Undoubtedly, such a trend may be primarily explained by the insufficient efforts of both federal and local health care institutions in terms of providing the minorities ' representatives with the necessary psychological treatment. Consequently, in order to understand comprehensively the problem of the adolescent mental health in the US, it is necessary to define the issue-related objective and subjective concerns as well as to analyze the peculiarities of a potential corrective to the

WELLESLEY, Mass. - “The national surveys that are done every year have shown decreases in adolescent alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use. And that is good news, it seems that we are doing something right,” Dr. Sarah Bagley says.