It's Time to do More than Talk

I've been teaching in the most typical of high schools in Ontario for nearly thirty years and if my experience of mental health is consistent with schools across the country, then folks, we have a serious problem.  I want to start with the macro and move to the micro.

 Here are the statistics, taken from the Ontario College of Teachers:

• Half of all lifetime cases of diagnosable mental illness begin before age 14, and three-quarters begin before age 24. 
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people age 15 to 24. 
• Ninety per cent of those who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental illness.
• 10 per cent of boys and 11 per cent of girls age four to 11 have symptoms of depression. 
• Mental-health problems in children are expected to increase by 50 per cent by 2020. 
• Seventy per cent of childhood mental-health problems can be solved through prevention, early diagnosis and intervention.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that:

• We've lost a number of students to suicide.
• We've lost a teacher to suicide.
• We have a small epidemic of anxiety in both our students and our teachers.
• Some in our school suffer from mental illnesses ranging from depression to personality and bipolar disorders. 

I think the Ontario education system contributes to this epidemic.  We work everyone too hard, we keep students and teachers inside (in my case, without a window), we limit physical activity, we emphasize results at the expense of process and we don't get enough sleep.  Our language, our work places, our classrooms, our hallways, sometimes encourage competition over cooperation.  We don't give anyone enough time to talk, and think, and decompress.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, we provide little help to those who feel unwell in such a system.

I'm  a teacher and I don't pretend to be trained in psychology but I have seen a few people over the past thirty years and I think I've learned what can keep them happy and healthy:

• Let's build schools that are made for people.  Let's have open windows, buildings that provide natural light and invite nature in.
• Let's give elementary teachers the training and ability to screen for mental health issues and then give families and students the supports they need. 
• Let's provide supports for teachers who far too often are left to struggle with their own mental health while still trying to be effective teachers.
• Let's screen teacher candidates, much like pilots, for mental health issues and either provide them support or discourage their entry into this profession that demands the most stable of psyches.

The mental health of our children and those who care for them is the most serious issue we currently face in education.  Let's do more than talk.