Health charities are calling for mental health services in schools as new report reveals more than 50,000 children and young people contacted helpline, a phone mental service, last year looking for help for serious issues such as student trauma. The new report details the need for schools to set up more mental health services, hire more counselors, and update the training for teachers dealing with such trauma.
"When our students are in school it's not just an academic piece, there's social-emotional pieces to students as well, we're not just compartmentalized," Cristin Craig, Hiawatha College Prep dean of students says. She also worked on the report, stressing that the rise in call for help by students is primarily caused by stress at home and school, including stress from social interactions. The evidence comes from the increase in calls to the helpline as it registers a 36% rise over four years.
According to The Guardian, mental health services need to be available in schools as calls from youngsters needing guidance for depression and other disorders soar. Alarmingly, the number of youngsters feeling suicidal have also risen. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) reveals that 50,819 children and young people between 2015 and 2016, an 8 percent rise in four years, have asked for counselling on a number of serious mental health issue.
Kids aged 12 to 15 made up a third of the calls, with girls almost seven times more likely to seek help than boys, the MPR News reports. Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, warns that without comprehensive network of mental health support, we won't be able to ensure the proper treatment of kids who are seeking psychological and emotional help. Health authorities are now starting to look for possible solutions of the problem, focusing on constructing more accessible mental health services for adolescents by bringing the to schools.
