One million. According to the American Foundation for suicide prevention, that’s nearly how many people attempted to take their lives not even two years ago. What took the crown as the leading cause of death for the youth in 2020 has been in the top three causes of death since 2010, making its way onto charts in the 1980s and 1990s. Before the 21st century, it was unspoken of. And as the suicide rate rises, so does the presence of an alarming modern crisis for humanity: The crisis of mental health. 

The reality is, mental health is a nuanced subject. When we define it as overall mental well-being, we see that Western youth has experienced a noticeable downturn as time has gone on. The World Happiness Report of 2024 highlights ever-increasing stress and a decline in reported happiness among students in the Western world, with particular lows in happiness compared to older generations. Meanwhile, rates of affective mental disorders– notably anxiety and depression– are high across the board. 

When it comes to mental health issues, there is no one-size-fits-all diagnosis of the problem, or solution. At the end of the day, our current youth is growing up in a society unlike any generation before, a deeply interconnected, high intensity, and largely pessimistic society. And of course, our world is still seeing lasting effects of the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the global shutdown that occurred. But this is no breaking news. Despite the worsening state of mental health, our mental health awareness has improved significantly. With time, schools alike have, at the very least, on a surface level, tried to incorporate mental health awareness into their environments.

And yet, it seems— in fact, it’s proven— that things are not getting better. When a survey by the American Psychological Association found that about 83% of teens cited school as a significant source of stress, citing workload and pressure to be successful as primary causes, it’s clear that schools have a significant role to play both in perpetuating the crisis, and combating it. The question is, how?

At The Village School, we are keenly aware of the impact that mental health has on students. We have a social-emotional counselor and a learning support specialist who focus in the mental well-being of students at our school, we put caps on workload, offer accommodations, offer mental health days, and actively incorporate social and emotional learning into our curriculum. The vast majority of schools in the US are not equipped in the same ways The Village School is, with many lacking an emotional counselor of any sort, with less than 50% providing any sort of mental health assistance or resources (as per the National Center for Education Statistics), with that number dwindling since 2022.

Too many Western schools lack mental health awareness or support of any kind– providing more mental health resources and programs is the obvious first step. Schools nationwide can hire counselors who offer mental health guidance and can refer students to screenings and mental help with relative ease, giving students an accessible way to understand and advocate for their wellbeing, providing them with resources, breaks, and accommodations to make their lives a bit easier can have a big impact. The implementation of such essential assistance has proven to lead to benefits across the board in areas such as academics, behaviour, and social relations, according to a report by the US Department of Education.

However, baseline mental health resources are not where the role schools play ends. “School isn’t just about safety and academics,” Said Rayla Willis, Social Emotional Counselor at The Village School. “It’s about creating the whole person; that includes the social aspect, that includes the mental aspect, that includes the emotional aspect, and in our world where there is so much going on and where people are more anxious or depressed lately, it’s about creating people who are equipped to handle that, too.” Students attending the Village school are likely aware of CAPD lessons like Character Strong, where they discuss subjects such as bullying, body positivity, and communication. Although the popularity and subsequent success of these lessons is up for debate, the Village School understands that the fundamental next step in supporting students is providing genuine guidance. 

In countries where mindfulness classes are implemented nationwide, studies reveal that students exposed to these practices benefited the most in terms of academic performance, interpersonal relationships, and overall well being. It is the school’s responsibility to support the large-scale implementation of programs that focus on equipping students with  the skills to navigate self-esteem and handle pressure in a society as intense as ours, as dismantling academic expectations and pressures addresses a root cause of stress for the vast majority of students. Programs exist globally and nationwide working to help implement mental health resources and teachings into schools around the state, giving hope that schools can continue to improve. 

The pivotal and unfortunately lacking presence of mental health resources and emotional guidance has been made clear. Though while many schools could be doing more, mental health resources and mindfulness programs are spreading. But despite the nearly 20% increase we saw in mental health resources in schools between 2020 and 2024, according to data from the Pew Research Center, research across the board suggests no statistically significant decrease in mental health issues has taken place in that time.

So what else is left for us to do? 

 “It might not sound related to mental health education at first, but I think schools could benefit from some more focus on building some hard skills.” Said Selay Esser, junior at The Village High School, and head of the Neurodivergent Student Association. “Increasing rates of depression anxiety are also mounted by kids not being prepared when they transition to adulthood. More classes to help students prepare themselves for the real world and feeling like they’re capable of surviving in our society are a must. When the focus is on teaching people to cope with feeling unprepared instead of preparing them, of course the issue isn’t solved.”  Surveys from The Journal suggest that about 40% of graduates report gaps in readiness for college, careers, or adult-life, highlighting the clear lack and preparation that students have moving on in life that necessitate a smooth transition into adulthood. A Harvard Graduate School of Education report found these feelings are a key driver of heightened anxiety (36%) and depression (29%) among young people in society, citing that socioeconomic pressures, declining social cohesion, and inadequate life skills education, exacerbate these challenges

Schools need to redirect more focus on life-based education.As per the Financial Educators Council, the presence of simple classes like financial literacy, home economics, and shop have gone down significantly over the past few decades (as the mental health crisis has worsened), with many schools today lacking in them entirely.  “We see so many cases of kids coming out of school learning a bunch of rocket science when they don’t even know how to do laundry,” Said Esser. “And it’s why so many of them suffer later on.”  The US education system needs to pick up the ball of life-learning and teach kids the essential skills they need now, more than ever, to feel ready to face their futures, be it financial literacy, home economics, or career counseling. And the positive effects of doing so can already be seen in Finland or Sweden, where studies like UNICEF’s show that students report lower levels of stress and higher satisfaction with life compared to their peers in other nations​ as a result of their mandatory holistic education.

When it comes to anxiety, fear, and hopelessness, efforts to better prepare kids for their futures and give them meaningful skills and support networks are instrumental. However, dread is only half the battle. From 2003 to 2020, average social engagement decreased by an average of 20 hours per month, as per reports on youth disconnection by Measure of America, while Psychology Today in 2021 points out that loneliness has significantly risen among teenagers globally, on a disturbing downward trend since the early 2000s. The youth do not have the same opportunities for communication and connections that they used to, even post pandemic. “Third party spaces outside of school and the home are essential for building social skills,” said Selay. “And as we’ve lost that, children are resorting to other ways of trying to find community, which is often on social media.” Though digital connections provide new ways to interact, they fail to fully replace the in-person relationships that are critical for well-being.

Where the youth has lost so many of the essential spaces and opportunities they need to find community and for connections, providing access and advocating for peer-mentorship programs and youth programs, supporting connections Scout programs, and even just investing more support into clubs and extracurriculars can help rebuild the foundation of these pivotal spaces for connection and community and give more kids access to spaces where they can form connections and develop social skills they missed out on during  the pandemic.

Ultimately, as the state of society changes faster and faster, it can be difficult to keep up. The spread of mental illness is exacerbated by everything from global conflicts to the high pressure state of our society, and that can get to everyone, but it is those who are still learning and growing, and who have the most ahead of them, who are the most vulnerable. It is high time society works actively to support its youth today, and that starts with schools. While baseline mental health support and education are essential, schools have a responsibility to promote substantial changes to improve the wellbeing of its students, and in doing so, society in general, whether that be adequately preparing students for their future or cultivating the true communities that were lost in the past decade. At The Village School, we are keenly aware of the role that mental health plays in the life of students, and work actively to support not just their academic careers, but their personal ones, too– today, and for their futures. With hope, soon, the American education system should do the same. 

References

Suicide Statistics. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. (2024, August 26). https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/ 

Harvard Public Health Magazine. (2024, June 13). Why are young people in the U.S. so unhappy? https://harvardpublichealth.org/mental-health/world-happiness-report-says-young-adults-are-unhappy-why/ 

World Health Organization. (2022, March 2). Covid-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide

National Center for Education Statistics. (2024). Prevalence of Mental Health Services Provided by Public Schools and Limitations in Schools’ Efforts to Provide Mental HealthServices. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education, Sciences. Retrieved [date], from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a23.

Schaeffer, K. (2022, August 10). Just over half of U.S. public schools offer mental health assessments for students; fewer offer treatment. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/08/10/just-over-half-of-u-s-public-schools-offer-mental-health-assessments-for-students-fewer-offer-treatment/ 

Lucariello12/05/22, K. (2022, December 5). National Survey finds High School graduates not prepared for college or career decisions. THE Journal. https://thejournal.com/articles/2022/12/05/national-survey-finds-high-school-graduates-not-prepared-for-college-or-career-decisions.aspx 

Mental health challenges of young adults illuminated in new report. Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2023, October 24). https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/23/10/mental-health-challenges-young-adults-illuminated-new-report 

Financial Literacy Statistics. NFEC. (2024, August 9). https://www.financialeducatorscouncil.org/financial-literacy-statistics/ 

Youth Disconnection in America. Measure of America: A Program of the Social Science Research Council. (n.d.). https://measureofamerica.org/DYinteractive/ 

McConathab, J. T. (2022, October 19). Technology use, loneliness, and isolation. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/live-long-and-prosper/202210/technology-use-loneliness-and-isolation