Mental Health in Educational Context

A Szegedi Tudományegyetem Bölcsészet- és Társadalomtudományi Karának Holland-magyar intézményvezető és középvezető képzésén írt záródolgozat.
Témái: Hiányosságok és igények napjaink oktatási intézményeiben, korábban megvalósult vagy jelenleg megvalósuló megoldási kísérletek, valamint intézményi kereteken belüli megoldási javaslatok. A vezető szerepe mindebben, és saját mentálhigiénéje.

This symposium was organised jointly by Mental Health in Higher Education, the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University and the School of Social Work at the University of Central Lancashire. The symposium was by invitation only and brought together scholars (including
academics, activists and research students) from the north-west of England to explore the issues that arise from trying to situate mental distress or ’madness’ within the social model of disability. We specifically focussed on psychosis, hearing voices and other extra-ordinary experiences, as these raise particular issues and challenges.

What is mental health? Mental health requires the development of cognitive, emotional, and social skills for which educational settings make an ideal context. Mental health may be defined as a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community (WHO). Thus, mental health is not just the absence of illness. Importance of mental health in education Educational settings promote mental health when they provide children and adolescents with a sense of identity and self-respect, direction and meaning in life, mastery, belonging, safety, social support and participation. Good mental health is associated with better educational and behavioural outcomes. A range of effective interventions are available to promote mental health and to prevent and reduce mental illness. However, very few children and adolescents receive such interventions in the school setting. Benefits of incorporating mental health into educational policies Mental health promoting pre-schools and schools have a wide range of positive impacts on children's development, including large impacts on educational outcomes and equity. Incorporating mental health into educational policies contributes to developing, maintaining and protecting society's most potent and least developed resource, the mental health of children. There is solid evidence that the cost-benefit ratio of mental health interventions in educational settings is very favourable. Recommendations • Provide a system of affordable, available and accessible high quality public day-care centres for all children. • Implement evidence based anti-bullying programs and whole-school based interventions to promote mental health and wellbeing, and prevent mental disorders in school. • Routinely assess day-care centres and schools on whether they promote mental health, providing young people with a sense of identity and self-respect, direction and meaning in life, mastery, belonging, safety, social support and participation. • Include children, adolescents and their families in planning school environments which promote mental health and wellbeing. • Collect regularly data on children's and adolescents' mental wellbeing and any problems. • Train school staff to support children's psychosocial development. • Include mental health promotion in national school curriculum. Key messages • The mental health of Europe's children and adolescents is its most potent yet least systematically developed resource. • The mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents has a value in its own right, and children and adolescents should not only be seen as future adults. • The educational setting is the most important arena outside the family for the development of children's mental health. • Solid evidence is now available to guide day-care centres, pre-schools, and schools in how to promote social-emotional learning and wellbeing, and how to reduce and prevent mental distress, violence, bullying, conflict and aggression. However, few children and adolescents receive such interventions. • Inclusion of mental health in educational policies-nationally, regionally and locally-has a very favourable cost-benefit ratio as it releases large societal resources in terms of wellbeing, cognitive, emotional and social skills (" mental capital "), which again have a broad range of positive impacts, including educational outcomes.

Abstract
Purpose – Stigma towards people with mental health problems is a significant problem and appears
trenchant despite recent anti-stigma campaigns. Attitudes develop in young children, and may be stronger
and less malleable in adolescence. Early intervention may be important for mental health education and
stigma prevention. Theory, evidence and practical considerations all suggest that teachers’ involvement is
key. By exploring communication about mental health between teachers and young children, it will be
possible to elaborate how stigma develops and may be ameliorated. The purpose of this paper is to explore
teachers’ accounts of this communication and the factors that influence it.
Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews with 15 primary school teachers were
transcribed and analysed using a grounded theory approach.
Findings – Discussions about mental health were largely absent from the classroom, due to teachers’ anxiety.
Teachers felt the need to protect children from exposure to people with mental health problems and even from
information about the topic, believed they lacked the necessary expertise, worried that such discussions were
outside their remit and were anxious about parents’ reactions.
Originality/value – This was the first study to interview teachers on this topic and suggests that a significant
opportunity to address fear and stigma is being missed. Teachers’ silence may reinforce that mental health
problems are taboo, and prevent children from developing knowledge and a language to talk about mental
health. The inclusion of teachers in early mental health education and could promote better understanding
and more inclusive attitudes, especially if supported by educational policy and curriculum.

This document was produced by members of the Developers of User and Carer Involvement in Education (DUCIE) Network: Editor Chris Essen, Jill Anderson, Marion Clark, Joan Cook, Lynne Edwards, Jo Fox, Ian Light, Alison MacMahon, Lisa Malihi-Shoja, Reshma Patel, Sam Samociuk, Alan Simpson, Lynn Tang and Nicky Westerby.

The question of how to hold Ontario’s publicly supported universities accountable to the needs  of  students  and  the  Province  is  a  relatively  complex  one.  On  the  one
hand, government  control  of  universities  raises  serious  concerns  about  the  institutional autonomy that safeguards the ideals of academic freedom and innovation. On the other, given that public investment in higher education exceeds $8,000 per student, the public has a right to know where, for what and how tax dollars are being spent. Over time, the Ontario university system has developed a series of accountability mechanisms that have attempted  to  acknowledge  both  realities.  While  these  initiatives  have  been  worthwhile, the  results  have  not  been  entirely  effective  or  accountable.  Moreover,  they  do  not adequately provide an avenue for quality improvement. To address these shortcomings, this  paper  makes  recommendations  for  changes  to  current  accountability  mechanisms
that  will  allow  a  greater  degree  of  transparency  in  the  system,  but  will  also  move universities towards certain public goals.

One out of three youngsters between the ages of 18 and 25 go through mental health problems. With the current scenario it deserves more attention within the management education domain. This research aims to address the role of the facilitator in aiding students with mental health issues (focused on anxiety) for their holistic growth. This paper aims to listening to the experiences of students and professionals to learn what is working well to support students with mental health difficulties and to ensure that their needs are most appropriately met to enable their education to make them good world citizens of the future.

In this paper, I will begin by charting some of the conceptions of mental health in young people today, paying particular attention to recent mental health education policies in England. I will focus on the concept of 'resilience' as central to these policies, and how this represents an impoverished understanding of mental health, what it means to 'overcome' mental health issues, and what, in fact, might constitute an 'appropriate' response to the world we (now) live in. In order to explore an alternative conception of mental health in light of this, I turn to an example from existentialist literature-Dostoevsky's Notes from underground. On the surface, this novel appears to be an account of a man suffering from a mental breakdown. Ultimately, however, I argue that texts such as this enable us to explore more fully what it is to experience mental health issues, and that also point us to the fundamental vulnerabilities and uncertainties that are an intimate part of being human.