Mental health awareness messages aren’t an uncommon sight around Central. They’re often posted in the bathrooms, around the halls and sometimes even heard on the morning announcements. These messages usually encourage students to reach out for help or just offer supportive statements.  

While these messages can be a nice reminder to care for your mental health, that’s really all they do. If schools really cared about the mental health of students, they would be using their resources to do more than spread awareness. After all, spreading awareness of problems doesn’t fix problems. 

It seems like the culture around mental health care in schools is all talk with no actual follow through. I understand that the intentions here are good, but words of support become hollow when there’s no action behind them. For students, it can become frustrating to hear these messages of support without actually receiving any help. 

So much anxiety and depression present in teens actually comes as a result of the pressure placed on them in school. This includes high expectations with grades, standardized tests, homework or just the school environment in general. When the education system is causing so much of the problem, it almost feels insulting for their solution to just be a “feel better” message. 

Stressors outside of school also worsen mental health. Factors like socio-economic inequality play a big role. Things as basic as living in a stable environment greatly impact mental health. Making sure students have their basic needs meant should be the first step in helping them. 

Of course, schools can’t fix everything. Many mental health problems occur outside or separate from school. But, giving students the chance to succeed in the classroom means providing them resources to deal with these issues. This is especially true when you remember that school is the only place many kids can access support for mental health issues.   

It also needs to be recognized that teachers already have so much on their plate,  so while they can be of some help, it’s unfair to them to add dealing with students’ mental health problems to their list of responsibilities. Schools need more dedicated counselors who are actually trained to work with kids to resolve issues. 

Personally, I’ve been lucky enough to receive mental health care when  struggling with depression. But this isn’t the reality for many students at Central. It’s unfair to expect kids to succeed in school while not being provided with proper support. Increasing the availability of counselors, school psychiatrists and social workers are all thing that Central can actively do to help. 

So, while mental health awareness is a good thing, it’s really just the bare minimum for supporting students. Schools need to put some action behind their words to show that they really care about supporting students.