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Post by Admin on Oct 19, 2016 9:38:12 GMT -4
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Post by Tunisha Zaman on Oct 19, 2016 18:24:14 GMT -4
Teachers should definitely be trained on mental health awareness training because this is a topic that should never be ignored. Negative consequences could occur by not noticing or recognizing the red flags that point towards something related to mental health because it could be too late to make a difference in a person’s life. Problems in mental health just don’t occur in adulthood. Unfortunately, this is something that children and adolescents have to struggle with as well, and if it is not noticed or controlled from the start, then it could lead to more problems. This is where the role of a teacher comes in. A teacher shouldn’t just exist to teach students different subjects to enhance their education, but they are there to know their students and evaluate them to see if they need help in any way possible. If a student comes in sick with a high fever, then obviously the teacher will make sure that he or she goes home and comes back when he or she is healthy again. The same thing is applied to mental health. If a teacher notices a student struggling with anything that is related to mental health, then help can be provided earlier rather than later, and there could be more awareness spread about the issue so that others can learn from it as well and help others in need. Sometimes children and adolescent feel more comfortable talking to a teacher about their issues because they see them on a daily basis or maybe it’s a cry for help because they don’t have anybody to turn to at home. Overall, teachers should keep their eyes and ears open and make a difference if possible.
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Post by Elio Monsour on Oct 20, 2016 1:39:50 GMT -4
I certainly do concur on the matter of implementing mental-health intervention training in educators across the country. A growing issue is that many students may feel hesitant or simply embarrassed by peers to individually seek advice concerning mental-health problems. That said, a simple certification course, as stated in the article, would help evaluate an array of behavioral concerns among children and adolescence. In doing so, teachers and coaches can effectively take the necessary approaches to intervene, with caution, and encourage students set up an appointment with a local school guidance counselor, preferably with a psychology background. This would be widely efficient, as student accessibility to address their issues, would not pose a challenge. Hence, students can report their 'stressors' that may be afflicting their ability to focus and perform well in school. Ultimately, this will help change the notion of mental health in a positive manner, and hopefully reduce the stigma.
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Post by chizhang on Oct 20, 2016 8:13:18 GMT -4
Healthy mental development of our children is obviously paramount to the stability of society, and everyone working with kids should take that course Elio mentioned from the article, “certification in ‘Mental Health First Aid’”, but beyond the 8-hour course, there is not much any teacher can do. Sure, recognizing signs of mental disorder and knowing the available resources would be brilliant, and any conscientious professional should learn to do so! If teachers ALL made 6-figures, then they should ALL be expected to do what the article is suggesting. But middle school and high school teachers just aren’t paid enough. In fact, teaching is probably the MOST underpaid profession on this planet! It’s ludicrous to tack on even more responsibility without the appropriate pay raise.
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Post by Opeyemi Owa on Oct 20, 2016 9:19:45 GMT -4
Its makes sense that educators should serve as the gatekeepers and first identifiers of mental issues in their student. They have more than likely over a period of time developed a certain level of rapport that makes it easier for the students to open up to them, and we all know that there is nothing more important than rapport when it comes to initiating a conversation about mental health. I commend Fork Union Military Academy on their initiative to implement mental health training courses for their educators, but I also share the concern that educators may not be able to effectively play the role of healer in these cases, and they shouldn't because there are trained professionals for this. I think educators are in a perfect position to serve as a bridge or link between students and the school counsellors or the psychiatrists that are well trained to help. I strongly believe that training educators on how to identify signs of mental health issues in their students, and put them in contact with someone who can help, will go a long way in preventing the detrimental fall outs that results from a lack of appropriate intervention.
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Post by Sherene Falconer on Oct 20, 2016 10:31:17 GMT -4
After reading this article I became painfully aware that even though majority of children are dealing with mental health disease, their teachers are simply not prepared to deal with these issues. To a child, a teacher is someone safe, someone who is non-threatening and one they have a relationship with so it makes sense that they will want to open up to their teachers. This should be reason enough to properly train teachers to identify and to some extent treat mental health disease. The article states that some schools have training programs such as Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), which can be “highly effective” but only when the teachers are adequately trained in basic mental health intervention and treatment. This statement seem to offer a solution, but I can see, at least in some areas, where lack of funds and limited resources result in teachers not being prepared to meet the mental needs of their students.
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Post by evangelinej on Oct 20, 2016 16:06:22 GMT -4
Assessing their students’ mental health is a job that teachers neither equipped for or are they paid enough to do. Teachers are already under enough pressure to make a little above minimum wage to also be responsible for their students’ various stressors. In order to fix this solution, the teachers should be paid more and should be made to attend a mandatory overview on psychiatric illnesses. If they see these illnesses in the student, there should be an on-campus psychiatrist that they can refer the student to, rather than tell the parents who may or may not eventually take the child to get the help they need.
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Post by Elvis Oppong on Oct 20, 2016 19:43:38 GMT -4
Getting teachers involved is a good idea but will take some time. Oftentimes, teachers attribute these to psychological problems to behavioral issues, which makes it difficult for them to help to their students. It's always best to intervene at a younger age when psychological problems arises than later on in life as it helps the individual develop better coping skills. Due to the inability to cope with some of these issues, students end up acting up in classrooms as well as in public, which, a lot of the time ends up being classified as a behavioral issue. This leads to the underlying issues triggering these emotions unnoticed. Monetary issues is one of the major problems several school districts are facing and makes me wonder how many school districts would be willing to participate in educating their teachers to address this issue. Also, I wonder how many teachers would be willing to participate in these classes as they already have enough on their plate dealing with students everyday.
Elvis Oppong (MS3)
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Post by Darrah Shields on Oct 20, 2016 20:23:34 GMT -4
Before reading this article I never really thought about the how educators were exposed to Mental Illness everyday. It was almost like an "aha!" moment for me while reading this and I could not agree more with the fact that teachers should be adequately trained on how to respond to mental illness in their students and how to make sure that they are safe and being taken care of. I consider myself very lucky that I grew up in a house with great support from my parents, but I know all too well that many children across the country can not say the same. I think many children that grow up in homes exposed to abuse whether its physical, emotional, or substance, look to their teachers for guidance and acceptance. I am not a teacher so I can't say for certain, but I think that the mast majority of teachers find themselves in a position where they are the ones protecting and caring for students in ways that go beyond the scope of their particular "job description". Educators are diligent students themselves so I believe that giving them Mental Illness classes during their curriculum would provide them with the knowledge they need to help students with mental illness but also may give them an insight into why the student behaves they way that they do.
Darrah Shields (MS3)
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Post by Yvette Mbangowah on Oct 21, 2016 8:26:16 GMT -4
This article bring to light something I had never really pondered upon. I never ever really thought much about how teachers handle mental health issues at school. Sometimes the symptoms of mental health issues get bunched together with disciplinary issues and the children do not get the proper care required and end up with a crisis later in life. It is true that kids spend most of their time at school, and therefore, teachers should be equipped with the tools to handle the problems the kids face. Just as it is explained, teachers get CPR training, epipen use training and many other basic skills that they might need while spending time in the classroom. It is only fair that their training should include mental health resources. With the rising cases of gun violence in schools, most teachers get training to handle the hostage situations, but mental health issues san be subtle and teachers need formal training to be able to identify students who need help and to appropriately refer them to get the help needed.as explained in the article, not getting the help needed means the issues these kids face lingers on for years until they get a crisis and have already faced damage that could have been avoided. With this in mind, I think the curriculum for teacher's education should include some form of formal training in identifying and handling mental health issues, and also in being able to identify the resources available. Also some form of continuing education should be part of the licensing process or should be offered by the schools, to ensure that teachers are up to date on the newly identified resources and evidence based management options available.
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Post by Morgan Nichols on Oct 21, 2016 10:39:31 GMT -4
As the step-daughter of a third grade teacher, I can say that I have seen first hand just how unprepared the typical teaching staff are to handle different mental health issues that arise in elementary school. I myself have witnessed classmates empty chairs and the feeling of shock and despair that follows a peers completed suicide. My step-mother became proactive about the dilemma, choosing to go back to school to obtain a masters degree in developmental psych so that she might be better equipped to handle issues when and if they arise. She has been the confidant to a number of children throughout the years; those underfed, abused, those whose innocence was lost and/or taken too soon. I believe more people should be proactive like my step-mom was in trying to become a better teacher for her parents in the meantime, until the issue can become addressed in curriculum towards becoming a youth educator.
That being said, in Iowa where I am from, it is no secret that the teaching degree is where about 30% of people end up who dreamed of becoming a teacher, the rest are people who partied hard and couldn't stick with the original majors they chose, and thus creates it's own problem. I feel like, and of course this is simply a matter of opinion, but if teachers we're paid a fair salary, you might get more people who genuinely want to do the work and therefore are more attentive and nurturing to the children whose education they are responsible for, versus those who came into the profession as a last-ditch effort. This article is prime in addressing that often times educators are the ones who are with children for long periods a day and they are often the best person (if trained) to detect the signs of abuse, neglect, and behavioral changes. The responsibility in being that person is monumental and overwhelming, but it makes it more glaringly evident that something needs to change; that teachers need to be trained in addressing mental health, but they also need to be compensated for that extra education, which might overall help the outcome of both student and teaching populace.
Morgan Nichols (MS3)
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Post by Samantha Ehrlich on Oct 21, 2016 16:06:16 GMT -4
Teachers are invaluable resources in monitoring behavior that is suggestive of mental health problems in our youth. These individuals play a huge role in children’s lives. They may serve as one of the only constants in a child’s life with the incidence of divorce, sexual, physical, and substance abuse as well as parental neglect. With the existence of cyber bullying and the use of other social media platforms that allow students to post their stream of consciousness, we have to be ever more vigilant of their mental health. It is cavalier to not include and prepare teachers to deal with mental health problems that run rampant through our young-adult population. It is critical to increase the number of programs to educate our teachers how to spot alarming behaviors and to have a chain of command in place when reporting these behaviors to school administrators, counselors, psychologists, or psychiatrists. I think we need to keep the doctoring to the well trained physicians who are fully equipt to deal with treating and managing mental health problems, but I believe having mandatory classes for teachers to help them identify and classify mental health problems will ultimately help save innocent lives.
Samantha Ehrlich (MS3)
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Post by Andrew Milian on Oct 21, 2016 19:32:07 GMT -4
Teaching in the USA is a shadow of its former glory. Today many teachers lack the skills needed to recognize educational problems but mental health issues as well. The article describes the fact that teachers are poorly (if at all) trained in mental health recognition. Can we blame them? In the USA the median salary is 56k, that being said, "extra training" could be seen as not being worth the hassle. I believe we must give more incentive to teachers to learn more about mental health issues and be better equipped to catch a mental health disorder in a child. It's not easy being a teacher, but we must weary about the potential problem of misdiagnosing a child. Misdiagnosis could lead to the child taking unnecessary medication, and ultimately altering the childs' development. Teachers, parents, and physicians must way the risk vs. rewards. I believe it is imperative to diagnose mental health disorders in children as early as possible and by incentivizing teachers we may be able to achieve that goal.
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Post by Ramy Salib (MS3) on Oct 21, 2016 19:48:22 GMT -4
After reading this article, I realized that I have never thought about how important a role teachers have in the mental health of our children. The article brings about a new light on the idea that teachers have the potential to catch children early, that may be suffering or showing signs of certain mental health issues. In my opinion, I can't blame teachers for not being able to do this, as their main job and training is to educate children. That being said, I think it would be a great idea to have teachers educated on this matter. It is the same as catching a child with drugs, etc. Catching a mental health issue in its early stages will surely lead to a better future for many children out there suffering from all kinds of different mental health problems. This post is no form or shape an attack to teachers, but it does make us wonder how the lives of many kids would be changed, if teachers were to consider learning more about red flags of at least the most common mental issues that children may face, due to a number of situations children face everyday (divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse, etc). The plan to educate teachers on this issues would certainly take time and extra effort from teachers, but the worth of it would be truly unmeasurable.
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Post by Jennifer Ganzhorn on Oct 21, 2016 21:21:27 GMT -4
Teachers are the people that children and adolescents spend the most time with outside of the family, as such they are first responders for mental health. Without training in mental health issues, they are at a complete disadvantage on how to help these children, which in turn causes the children themselves to be disadvantaged. I think it would be an excellent idea to have some training in evidence based mental health interventions to recognize trends and warning signs for these teachers. Perhaps it could be incorporated into their undergraduate training for teacher certification. It was a shock when the article stated that a large percentage of teachers don’t even know what resources are available in their own schools. Apart from the orientation on mandatory reporting, I think that it is imperative that the teachers be made aware that these programs are available and to recognize which children would benefit. I really liked the military school that used the mental health first aid certification. I think making a program like that a mandatory part of their training could help make the teachers more aware and enable them to do more for children with mental health issues and get them into the programs available to them.
Jennifer Ganzhorn MS3
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