May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness:
1 out of 6 youth experience mental health conditions. Only half of those youth will receive treatment.
50% of all lifetime metal health begins by the age of 14.
The average delay between onset of symptoms and treatment is 11 years.
In 2020, 1 in 5 youth reported that the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health.
In 2020 there was a 31% increase in mental health related ER visits among adolescents.
According to the CDC:
In 2021 4 in 10 students reported they felt persistently sad or hopeless.
In 2021 1 in 5 students reported seriously considering suicide. And 1 in 10 students have attempted suicide.
The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that the most common mental health concerns for youth are; anxiety, depression, ADHD, and eating disorders.
How can we support our students and their mental health?
2 out of the top 3 ideas on the list put out by the CDC are; mindfulness and social emotional learning. Two things we already promote at as a school. We are working to support the mental health of your students.
You can too.
We utilize a program called Inner Explorer. You can connect with the Inner Explorer at Home app for free.
Did you know that research shows, what we focus on expands? This goes deeper than always being positive and the power of positive thinking. Studies show that those without depression symptoms tend to form more positive memories and have more positive memory recall. By utilizing mindfulness we expand the positive parts of our brain and promote positive memories and positive recall.
Mental energy matters.
I am sure many of you have heard the expression, neurons that fire together wire together, in short this means that the more we expand the positive parts of our brain the more we wire our brain for the positive. Mindfulness promotes the expansion of the positive and the increase in positive wiring.
A good mindfulness practice is a simple one that follows three steps.
Pause
Reframe
Kindness and Compassion
💓
Pause to think and reflect. (without judgment)
Reframe the thought. (we do not have to be positive but we can reframe a situation to see more than the negative.)
Kindness and Compassion toward yourself for where you currently are and where you would like to be and for how you are working on getting there. Be kind to your current self. Show compassion as you work toward a more positive future.
Remember the best way to teach this to your students is to first teach it to yourself.
