Last Sunday, October 10th, was the International Day of Mental Health and I could not leave the opportunity to speak my mind about it. It is true that is a harsh topic to talk about, even with our closest ones. But every year I get more and more aware of the importance of it, mostly in an educational environment like the one we will be involved in soon.
As future teachers, we are going to get in touch with many types of students: from young children to adults. But many of us will end up teaching teenagers, who are more likely to suffer from mental health problems. Adolescence is not an easy age for any of us, teenagers spend about six hours a day in high school and create their community there. Sometimes everything is fine and they feel comfortable with their classmates. The problem comes when high school hours are a nightmare.
Teachers have always to keep an eye on every student. We need to be taught how to recognise the signals that may lead to mental health problems for our students, such as depression or anxiety. Moreover, when we notice these signals we need to be quick in acting to prevent the situation to get worse.
Mental Health Day is a day to raise awareness, but also to ask ourselves how can we help those who need to be helped and don't know how to ask for it.
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