The Importance of Mental Health in School Systems and Navigating the Dreadful Case of Senioritis

Senioritis: A daunting time for everyone, including myself. The drastic decrease in motivation, discipline, and even up to the desire to pursue academics as much as seniors have for that last semester lead up to the thing nearly everyone experiences: burn-out.

What does burn-out mean? It's not only a physical, but in addition an emotional and mental draining from one's work. In senior cases this includes school. While some students do give into this temptation and laziness, other times students have truly experienced concerning mental health issues and complications in keeping up schoolwork and finding support to navigate through this interesting shift in the final part of their high school career.

There are so many reasons and methods to which students and staff can more comfortably work through this drought, but the first thing lies in how to acknowledge it.

In educational facilities, not all systems provide mental health assistance and awareness towards the student body. Minimizing the students’ emotional resources hinders academic performance, as well as degrading the school environment. This impacts students’ overall educational experience throughout their high school years. School systems should implement more mental health resources for students in order to produce better academic outcomes and improve mental well-beings.

While many school systems fail to acknowledge how school culture affects students’ mental wellbeing, dismal learning environments have a direct impact on a student’s mental health, hindering academic performance. When poor communication occurs while attempting to improve school conditions, teachers and students develop conflicting relationships with each other based on a lack of emotional needs being met. Since students’ mental health is highly connected to the mental health environment offered within their school environment, as well as the mental health resources it provides and encourages, teachers and students need to create meaningful discussions attempting to improve the matter. Many school factors that influence students’ mental health include peer relationships, or staff relationships, and neglect of students’ mental needs. For instance, anxious students may not be respected when they state they cannot perform the same public speaking tasks as a non-anxious student. The resources provided by schools can have a significant effect on student well-being and comfort in school environments. In addition, social interactions that staff members have with students also affects students’ well-being. Some schools offer counseling or have other mental health supports in place. However, there is still a significant lack of mental health support in school environments. Teachers are not always trained to properly handle a wide range of mental illnesses or accommodations. Allowing minimal resources within school grounds only temporarily helps the situation, but ignorantly pushing aside the dilemma only delays further resolution within the student body and environment as a whole. Teachers’ ignorance of the factors that impact students’ physical and mental well-being negatively influences the schools’ overall mental health rating. Increased staff awareness of mental health determiners and supports, as well as increased funding for these areas, will dramatically increase students’ mental wellness, and encourage better performance academically.

Schools help students’ mental well-being and academic outcomes by creating more meaningful staff-student relationships and a healthier environment. Parts of students' mental well-being in school environments is contingent upon staff members creating a more comfortable environment for students to share their point of view. “Most studies found a significant protective relationship between higher levels of school connectedness and depressive and/or anxiety symptoms'' (Raniti 2). Encouraging a positive relationship between the student and staff helps to create comfort and a safe space for students, giving them more freedom to communicate about concerns and needed assistance. Additionally, this encourages teachers to prioritize engaging in personable relationships. Regarding school connectedness with peers and overall school environment, “it [attracts] attention from both the health and education sectors as a potentially modifiable protective factor for common mental health problems” (Raniti 2). By staff taking the time to work towards a healthier school environment, a substantial difference can be made for the sake of students’ well-being. If however, the staff does not make this a priority, kids’ fears escalate to school avoidance. This “fear or anxiety that makes it emotionally difficult for students to attend school or to remain there for a complete day of classes,” badly reflects on a school's image and showcases the school’s ignorance towards mental health care (Raniti 2). However, spending adequate time revealing the severity of mental health and students’ well being to staffing, would alleviate student suffering.  

            The environment created in a school can directly affect the students’ mental health, thoughts, and actions. School connectedness involves how students perceive a teacher's personality, and the relationships of students and staff members. When students see the involvement of teachers trying to implement support for someone with mental disabilities, “it helps students to see the safe space staff members should be creating” (Raniti 2). Many studies demonstrate a clear connection between school connectedness and a student’s mental health. “Schools can help students’ mental well-being and academic outcomes by creating more meaningful staff-student relationships and a healthier environment” (Raniti 2). However, neglect can result in an increase in depression and anxiety within a student body. The relationships help retain meaningful bonds in student bodies and sympathize with situations. Additionally, these bonds cause a stronger connection with students and allows for better understanding within the school members.

Sources:

Raniti, Monika, et al. "The Role of School Connectedness in the Prevention of Youth Depression and Anxiety: A Systematic Review with Youth Consultation." BMC Public Health, vol. 22, no. 1, 25 Nov. 2022, pp. 1-24. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A727807891/GPS?u=plan77425&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c84228b9.