Mental Illness In Schools

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Mental illness affects nearly every part of an individual’s life. The affects of disorders such as depression and anxiety can be devastating. Frequently, those suffering from mental illness lose friends, family members, jobs, and sometimes even their life to their illness. Many of those suffering are unaware that they have a problem and, therefore, do not seek treatment. With a large onset of mental illness occurring during adolescence schools should play a crucial role in diagnosing and treating mental illness. School systems should administer mandatory mental health screenings for students to diagnose illness in order to encourage the pursuit of support, treat illness before the affects are devastating, and improve school performance in those suffering. Mental…show more content…
Because of this it is not surprising that many individuals struggling never reach out to seek help and often face devastating consequences as their illness begins to permeate every part of their life. School systems need to be especially sensitive to the treatment and support for individuals with mental illness. School systems provide mandatory hearing tests, check for scoliosis, and test students vision. Meanwhile, one of the leading causes of death among adolescents is suicide, and many schools do not provide services that are readily available to the mentally ill. Some argue that mental illness is not of a school systems concern. On behalf of the American Psychological Association one author writes, ". . .while anxiety and depressive disorders may not impact others the way externalizing problems do, both sets of disorders are characterized by functional impairment in school and interpersonal relations" (Shirk and Jungbluth paragraph 1). It is critical that

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