Mental Health of Students A Teacher Resource
Mental Health of Students A Teacher Resource
Mental Health of Students A Teacher Resource
ScholarWorks@BGSU
Fall 12-7-2020
Part of the Counseling Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons,
Educational Psychology Commons, Mental and Social Health Commons, Other Teacher Education and
Professional Development Commons, Secondary Education and Teaching Commons, and the Student
Counseling and Personnel Services Commons
Repository Citation
Seguin, Kathryn, "Mental Health of Students: A Teacher Resource" (2020). Honors Projects. 557.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/honorsprojects/557
This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at ScholarWorks@BGSU. It has been
accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@BGSU.
Running Head: MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 1
https://kathsegu.wixsite.com/mentalhealth
Kathryn Seguin
Honors Project
Submitted to the Honors College at Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the
Project Overview
This resource is a professional website regarding the four main types of mental health
disorders as well as a detailed list of legal responsibilities of teachers and school personnel to be
involved in the mental health of students. This website is a resource tool for teachers for a variety
of reasons, and it is simply that; a resource. It is not a diagnostic tool and does not substitute for a
educational purposes only. It is a compilation of information collected from several sites that are
located on this single website. It is to support teachers in their understanding of mental health
issues of school-aged children and adolescents. As the author, I did not create these materials or
Within each of the four mental health categories, which include anxiety, depression,
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and substance use, are sections that include an
overview of the disorder as well as specific teacher tools for that specific disorder. In the
overview section, there are several breakdown categories, including; definition, signs and
symptoms, risk factors, differential diagnoses, as well as a complete list of sources used within
the page. Within each of these categories, I have listed specific research-based findings from a
variety of sources that apply to what might be seen in adolescents or in the classroom. In the
teacher tools section, there are several categories, including; providing emotional support,
classroom setup and schedules, giving instructions and assignments, introducing new concepts
and lessons, communication between home and school, building organization skills, or a
combination of these. Within each of these categories, I have listed a variety of tools and
strategies to be used within the classroom or with students in general to assist them with their
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 3
mental health in their specific struggles. At the end of each page, I have included a compiled list
of all sources used within that page and small footnotes throughout the page to signify which
Within the legal responsibilities page, I have included essential information for teachers
to understand about the implications of mental health issues being presented in the school and
how it may be handled. I have also included specific court cases in which there was negligence
from school staff, including teachers and other personnel, that resulted in lawsuit. Within the
school personnel page, I have included a detailed list of possible personnel that can be hired
within the school and that teachers may have the opportunity to work with, as well as a detailed
description of their job duties and education. At the bottom of this page is a compiled list of
hotlines, textlines, and websites that can be used in a possible mental health crisis situation.
Lastly, on the feedback page I have included a space for the website visitors to share their
thoughts and suggestions for the website, and I plan to implement changes based on this
feedback if necessary.
This resource is very necessary to the lives of many, including students, teachers,
families, administrators, the community, and any other population affected by mental health.
Studies estimate that about 18% of the U.S. population ages 18-54 are affected by a mental
disorder during a given year and about 50% of the population will have a diagnosis of or a
diagnosable disorder in their lifetime (Jorm, 2016). It is beyond a doubt that teachers should have
a thorough understanding of the mental health disorders they may witness in students during
their time as a teacher. Along with that, teens are less likely to reach out for help regarding their
mental health. In fact, in 2014 less than half (41.2%) of adolescents who went through a
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 4
depressive episode received treatment for the depressive episode (Jorm, 2016). Therefore, it is
imperative that teachers, who are with students almost every day, to understand these mental
health disorders, know the signs and symptoms, and reach out to students who may be suffering.
When teachers do see mental health issues in their students, they should do their best to reach out
In society as a whole, the number of adolescents that have had mental health issues has
grown significantly. According to Mental Health America, “Youth mental health is worsening.
From 2012 to 2017, the prevalence of past-year Major Depressive Episodes (MDE) increased
from 8.66 percent to 13.01 percent of youth ages 12-17. Now over two million youth have MDE
with severe impairment. Only 28.2 percent of youth with severe MDE were receiving some
consistent treatment...” (Mental Health America, n.d.). This statistic, and more, go to show that
there has been a strong increase in mental health issues in society and in adolescents specifically,
which are not always being treated or recognized. This is the exact reason as to why teachers
need to be knowledgeable and prepared for mental health issues to arise within the classroom.
According to Mental Health First Aid USA, which is the author of the training program
that third year education major students are required to complete through BGSU, “More than 2
million people across the United States have been trained in Mental Health First Aid by a
dedicated base of more than 15,000 Instructors” (About, 2013). Currently, training for mental
health first aid is done by a variety of different servicers, one of which being Mental Health First
Aid USA. In Ohio, the Department of Education launched Project AWARE, which stands for
Advancing Wellness And Resilience in Education. This program’s goals are to “raise awareness
of behavioral health issues among school-aged youth, provide training to detect and respond to
mental health challenges and crisis in children and young adults, and increase access to
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 5
behavioral health supports for children, youth, and families” (Project AWARE Ohio, 2020).
Overall, as time continues, there is more of an emphasis on mental health training when it comes
On top of the already increasing mental health issues regarding adolescents in the United
States, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed this issue even further due to students staying at
home with less outlets for their emotions. School psychologists are doing their best to work with
teachers during this time of distance learning and they are attempting to support students' mental
health needs in a virtual context (Minke, 2020). School psychologists are asking questions such
as, “How do we protect students who experience domestic violence and abuse, given the
increasing stress on families? How do we support students with existing or emerging mental-
health problems?” (Minke, 2020). Although it is a hard time for everyone, it is more necessary
than ever for teachers and other school staff to understand the effects of COVID-19 on the
mental health of students. Overall, there has been an obvious need for mental health resources
This resource will be mostly used by teachers, but the content is not limited to solely
teachers. It can be used by students, parents, mental health school personnel, school
administration, and other educational faculty and staff. For teachers specifically, they will be
using this resource for purely educational purposes, and it is aimed to serve as a foundation of
mental health understanding in the absence of mental health training. It is meant to serve as a
surface-level tool to be used in the case of suspected mental health struggles seen in students in
their classroom so that they can have a general sense of how to differentiate their students with
mental health struggles. More specifically, the school personnel page is important in that it
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 6
guides the teachers who are using the resource to the direct source of mental health professionals
to assist, as it is not the teacher’s legal responsibility to provide counseling directly to the
student. Students and parents can use the resource as an informational source for basic mental
health research and to get a grasp of potential strategies that teachers may implement within their
classroom or their child’s classroom. Mental health school personnel can use this resource to
guide teachers to the information or to build upon the teaching strategies mentioned to adapt the
specific student’s situation to the classroom. Administrators can use this tool to gauge the mental
health understanding that the teachers within the school have and to train and increase education
This resource will be used when a teacher or any other individual in need of the resource
feels that there is a student or adolescent that is struggling with their mental health. It is always
better to be safe than sorry, as it may save a student’s life. Therefore, it is essential to use this
resource or seek out professional mental health resources whenever there is a concern - big or
small. Since teachers are with students for extended periods of time on a daily basis, they can
sometimes be on the front end of their student’s lives and may notice these struggles before other
individuals in the student’s lives. This resource will be used when the teacher notices a struggle
and they can deal with the struggle accordingly, most of the time meaning that they would
encourage the student to seek professional help. This resource can also be used after the student
establishes a connection with mental health professionals and is receiving treatment when a
mental health school personnel reaches out to a teacher to give special considerations to the
student. This is why the teacher tools portion of the resource is so important, as it gives ideas to
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 7
the teachers to differentiate the student, make them feel welcome in their classroom, and possibly
This resource can also be used as an educational tool for pre-service teachers, as
demonstrated in the defense. Pre-service teachers are expected to go through young adult mental
health training, and this resource further elaborates on the information used within these training
sessions. Professors can share this resource with their students as a teaching tool for pre-service
teachers to be open to the possibility of mental health struggles of students in their future
classrooms. Pre-service teachers should be prepared and open-minded regarding student mental
health.
This resource can be found through the Honors College Project Archives on the BGSU
website as well as through the website link. This link can be sent to administrators of local
school districts and further distributed to teachers and other school personnel for their use. This
link can also be sent to mental health training organizations if they do not have their own website
resource or if they would like to partner with me to use this free teacher resource. After the
teachers and other individuals have the link to the website, they can bookmark it or save it to
their browsers for easy access to the material when they see a student struggling in their
classroom. Along with that, professors at the higher education level and within teaching and
learning programs, such as at BGSU, can share this resource with pre-service teachers as an
additional teaching tool regarding what teaching actually looks like and what should actually be
expected as a teacher. Overall, this resource can be found in a variety of ways and will continue
to be an accessible and resourceful tool after the Honors Project is completed and submitted in
December of 2020.
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 8
Feedback
After completing the Honors Project Defense on December 3rd, 2020, I have gathered
feedback from the audience through a Google Form. The audience that responded to the
feedback survey included 7 pre-service students within Methods of Student Teaching and 1
professor within the School of Teaching and Learning. There were a total of 13 prompts to be
answered regarding the level of comfortability, knowledge, and information that was presented,
The first question asks the audience their level of awareness of mental health issues that
students may bring to the classroom on a scale of one to five. According to Appendix C, Figure
1, the results indicate that the audience feels that they expect several mental health issues in their
future classrooms and that they feel that this is actually a prevalent issue. When asking the
audience their level of comfort of addressing mental health issues both prior and after the
presentation, the results as seen in Appendix C, Figures 2 and 3, the audience was moderately
comfortable prior to the presentation, whereas they were much more comfortable after the
presentation. These answers indicate that the presentation was successful in improving the
comfortability of the audience in discussing mental health issues. This is important because if
teachers are not comfortable discussing mental health issues, they may not be fully able to assist
the students in their classroom who suffer from these issues or their symptoms. When asking the
audience their level of understanding of certain mental health issues both prior and after the
presentation, the results in Appendix C, Figures 4 and 5 are similar to those seen in Appendix C,
Figures 2 and 3. The audience indicated that they felt their level of understanding prior to the
presentation was at a moderate level of understanding, and after the presentation was at a high
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 9
level of understanding. Although these students comprising the audience have already completed
Mental Health First Aid Training through the University during the Spring of 2020, this website
acted a refresher for their understanding of mental health topics and took those topics to the next
In Appendix C, Figure 6, every person within my audience stated that they are very
confident that they will use this resource as a teacher. To me, this was one of the most important
questions and the response tells me that this resource met my main goal of this project; to be
useful. In Appendix C, Figures 7 and 8, the audience was asked if they feel they will use this
resource as both a student teacher and as a teacher in their future classrooms. Again, the results
indicate that the audience does in fact feel that they will use the website to a high level,
indicating that I have met my goal of having a useful website that has intentions to be utilized in
Within this feedback form, I have also given the audience an opportunity to respond to
several short answer questions so that they are able to explain their answers in more detail than
the numerical response questions. In Appendix D, Response 1, I asked the audience what new
information they learned and I received a variety of responses. The responses indicate that the
audience learned about the connection between mental health issues and teachers and that
teachers and other school personnel can make accommodations to students that don’t have to be
“giant adjustments”. The results also state that the tool that I have designed to be in a website
format is a “quick and easy resource to go to when a new issue comes up” and that they “love the
tool I have designed as a central platform to share this information”. This tells me that I was
successful in making the website user-friendly and informational. Lastly, one of the responses
also explained that they learned from the presentation that my personal experiences motivated
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 10
me to make this resource and that the topic of suicide is shocking and prevalent, which was
another aim of mine to make sure the website is prevalent to the users. In Appendix D, Response
2, the results indicate that “everything was displayed very well and cleanly” and that the
presentation had no elements that were unclear to the audience. Overall, reading these responses
has reinforced the success and reaching of my goal of making sure this website is user friendly,
In Appendix D, Response 3, I asked the audience if there was anything that should be
included that was not included, and I received several great ideas that could be implemented to
this website in the future. One of the ideas presented to me is to have early indicators for the
behaviors, which I have actually included in the website as “risk factors” within each of the main
pages of the website. To build upon this idea, I could include more teacher tools that work well
with students presenting symptoms of mental health issues without being directly diagnosed. It
was also suggested that the website could be “expanded to cover even more issues”, which is
something that I definitely would like to implement while updating and forming the website over
time. Another idea stated that the website could include a section that is “presented in chart for a
quick reference guide” for the psychological concerns that they may face within the classroom,
which I agree with and believe would make the information easier to read. Lastly, the feedback
suggested that I could include a “comment area for teachers to share their personal experiences
with mental health situations in their classroom. Teachers can even share their experiences using
your website”, which I think is a great way to get teachers to interact with the site other than the
feedback form on the last page and for teachers to communicate with each other through this
website. In Appendix D, Response 4, I asked the audience if they had any additional feedback,
questions, comments, or concerns that they would like to share with me. Much of this feedback
MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS: A TEACHER RESOURCE 11
was very positive, and one of the audience members stated that they will “more than likely come
back to this and especially know what to do when or if an issue does arise”, again indicating that
this tool is useful and prevalent. Another audience member stated that they really liked the
organization of the website and that “it is very easy for a teacher to use and quickly access
information”, which I was also glad to hear as I met my goal of having a user-friendly website
tool.
In conclusion, I was pleased to see through the feedback that I have received that the
audience indicated positive results regarding this resource. The results indicated that I had
successfully met all my goals with this Honors Project and was successful in the planning,
creation, and implementation of this website. I look forward to seeing teachers, pre-service
teachers, professors, and others actually utilize this website and benefit from it. I hope that this
website resource can be a steppingstone for the audience to become caring and mental-health-
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