How We Can Promote Positive Mental Health Environments In Primary Schools
Gracie King was a junior at Warwick High School who committed suicide due to her battle with mental health. I was friends with Gracie for a brief amount of time before we lost her. Sitting by a desk that was never going to belong to her again was hard. Losing Gracie was one of the hardest things my graduating class had dealt with.
Gracie among many other young people were taken too soon at the hands of poor mental health. Like Gracie, many mental health issues begin to develop in primary schools which are grades K-6.
The best strategies to promote a positive mental health environment in primary school is to move the concept of mental health to a level that primary students can understand, have teachers work side by side with students and to support the teachers who are involved.
Mental health is a loaded term that carries lots of meaning. Mental health can be described as our social, emotional, and psychological well-being. To have a good mental health is to be content with oneself, surrounded by happiness, support from others, and trust within yourself and others.
Mental health can be a heavy topic for primary school age children to understand. David Haycock, Jon Jones, and Andy Smith conducted research in 2020 that led to different ways to move the concept of mental health to a level that these students can understand in order to promote a positive mental health environment (Haycock, Jones & Smith, 2020).
Haycock, Jones, and Smith found that turning this concept into games or activity sheets is a way to teach children about positive mental health. In this study, the game of Jenga was used to give students opportunities to pull out green or red blocks (Haycock, Jones & Smith, 2020). These different colored blocks prompted students to discuss what positive mental health habits are, and how to cope with situations that stress our mental health. Haycock, Jones, and Smith also gave a thermometer worksheet to the children to describe what are things that make our mental health cool and calm, and what also make it hot and stressed (Haycock, Jones & Smith, 2020).
From their research Haycock, Jones, and Smith found positive reactions to these activities that promoted the children to discuss what it means to have a good mental health and some habits to cope with stressors (Haycock, Jones & Smith, 2020). The children were given verbal prompts to respond to about what they learned. The collective response was that having a good friend to trust and talk to can be a great strategy to use in order to have a good mental health.
Another strategy to promoting positive mental health environments in primary schools is to have the teachers and students working side by side in order for these environments to be successful. Although these strategies are being delivered by the teachers, the opinions and voices of the children involved are just as important according to Haycock, Jones, and Smith.
To work side by side, educators are encouraged to talk about mental health, teach about mental health, and be a resource for tools that can help the students. Educators need to actively talk about the stigma associated with mental health and show their students that it is not entirely true. Mental health should be taught to students to let them know what it is considering how loaded the concept is. Educators need to have the tools and resources ready at their student's disposal.
These methods will take practice to develop and implement but it is worth the trial and error because the fight for better attitude and stigma towards mental health will not end. When teachers use these different methods they can promote a positive mental health environment in their primary schools.
For these methods to be fully successful, the teachers who are involved must be supported, and trained in this process of promoting positive mental health environments in primary schools. Not only do the mental health needs of students need to be met, but so do the needs of the teachers. Teachers take on many roles from advocates to caregivers in the lives of their students therefore this can be heavy upon their shoulders. The attitude and behavior of the teacher highly effects that of the students as well therefore if the teacher has poor mental health, how can we expect our children to have good mental health?
Teachers must also be trained in order to be this kind of support for their students. Mental health training for educators can start within their Teacher Preparation Program at their university and continue through their profession. This kind of training must have the teachers know how to identify and respond to potential signs of poor mental health in order to help their students bounce back and develop a good mental health.
Sometimes for students, a teacher is the only adult they can turn to in life. On top of the stress of being a teacher, being that outlet for students can create even more stress. In order to support out students we must support and train our teachers.
Many will say that mental health is a 'touchy' or 'controversial' topic especially for young children to understand. The topic of mental health is very heavy but if we approach it appropriately we can change those statistics over time.
Understanding mental health can be too complicated for our primary classrooms but if we move it to an appropriate level of understanding for primary school aged children, have the students and teachers work side by side, and support our teachers with the proper training and mental health, we can promote positive mental health environments in primary schools.
Now what? We all take the step towards this journey to benefit everyone involved. The first step can be talking to an administrator, or teacher, that you trust about increasing the awareness of mental health in your school. These kinds of steps will create strides.
Comments
Post a Comment