Gaps in Mental Health Knowledge
Hannah Ross
Author
04/03/2021
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81
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Description
This study is looking to find what schools are teaching students about mental illness to find if education could contribute to current mental health statistics. This study used semi-structured interviews among Nebraska high school graduates to see what is being taught across Nebraska and what high school alumni believe should be taught in the future, which is cross referenced with previous studies.
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- [00:00:01.410]Hello. My name is Hannah Ross,
- [00:00:03.060]and this study is called "Gaps in Mental Health Knowledge." For background
- [00:00:07.770]statistics on mental health.
- [00:00:10.740]An estimated 31% of us adults experience some sort of anxiety disorder
- [00:00:15.630]at some point in their lives. In 2019,
- [00:00:18.540]around 17 million Americans experienced a depressive episode.
- [00:00:23.280]The highest prevalence of which was among those aged 18 to 25.
- [00:00:27.330]And in that group, 13% experienced the depressive episode.
- [00:00:31.290]Suicide was and remains the second leading cause of death among
- [00:00:35.880]individuals between the ages of 10 and 34.
- [00:00:38.880]So ranging from middle school all the way into adulthood. In response to these
- [00:00:43.500]statistics in 2004,
- [00:00:45.570]Congress passed an act to support suicide prevention and intervention programs.
- [00:00:49.470]Then in 2014,
- [00:00:51.180]Nebraska passed legislation requiring all school personnel to take at least one
- [00:00:55.440]hour of suicide awareness and prevention training each year. However,
- [00:00:59.970]prior research suggests these methods may not be the most effective.
- [00:01:05.790]It's important to note that the general public is often made aware of prevention
- [00:01:09.810]and treatment for major physical diseases,
- [00:01:12.000]but the same does not seem to be seen for mental illnesses.
- [00:01:15.030]Despite the fact that they're so prevalent in the population.
- [00:01:18.600]This is especially important when it comes to young people,
- [00:01:21.900]as they are less likely to seek out an adult or professional when things are
- [00:01:25.500]wrong and more likely to tell their friends in this case,
- [00:01:29.190]if they're more likely to tell their friends,
- [00:01:31.290]but none of them know about mental illness.
- [00:01:33.630]There isn't really a way that they can help each other or help themselves.
- [00:01:37.830]However,
- [00:01:38.610]the study in 2012 found that when young people were
- [00:01:43.410]educated about mental illness first aid,
- [00:01:45.870]and they had the intention to help those around them,
- [00:01:48.030]it predicted their behavior and they were able to help people around them.
- [00:01:51.510]However,
- [00:01:52.440]if their only belief is that you should report that person to a professional or
- [00:01:56.340]an adult that did not predict their behavior,
- [00:01:58.530]and they were less likely to follow through.
- [00:02:00.520]That's why with all of this knowledge,
- [00:02:06.200]this study is looking to see what are students taking away
- [00:02:11.120]from schooling about mental illness.
- [00:02:13.490]Do students feel as though they have the resources that they need to help
- [00:02:16.400]themselves or help others? And if not,
- [00:02:19.160]what can we do to help change the situation and reverse the statistics?
- [00:02:24.410]So for this study,
- [00:02:25.370]I used snowball sampling to interview 19 to 23 year olds who had graduated from
- [00:02:29.540]Nebraska high schools.
- [00:02:31.820]I did interviews that were semi-structured and recorded with the participants.
- [00:02:37.100]The participants had attended public Nebraska schools that qualified as
- [00:02:41.960]small rural schools, intermediate sized schools or large urban school.
- [00:02:49.640]So I asked participants first, what they learned about mental illness in school,
- [00:02:53.690]especially in relation to depression, anxiety and suicide.
- [00:02:56.870]Three participants said they had no memory of learning about mental illness in
- [00:03:00.490]school. It said that it was mentioned,
- [00:03:02.380]but glossed over, meaning that mental illness was defined.
- [00:03:05.710]They were told to get help from a counselor or given a hotline,
- [00:03:08.620]but there was no in-depth conversation about signs and symptoms or coping
- [00:03:11.860]mechanisms. I think it's important to note that within this group,
- [00:03:16.600]three of the individuals
- [00:03:19.000]got this information from an elective class such as human behavior or
- [00:03:22.450]psychology, meaning that this information was not a part of the core curriculum.
- [00:03:27.190]There was only one participant that said their school explained more than just
- [00:03:31.450]definitions. However,
- [00:03:32.710]the students said that it didn't seem to be important to the person talking or
- [00:03:36.940]anyone else in the class making it harder to retain.
- [00:03:40.210]So while it seems like mental illness didn't seem like a priority in the
- [00:03:43.390]curriculum, bullying was much more commonly mentioned. In fact,
- [00:03:47.650]one participant said, well, if they talked about anything,
- [00:03:50.530]they talked about bullying.
- [00:03:52.690]So every participant said that there was some sort of anti-bullying assembly
- [00:03:57.430]intervention talk at the beginning of the school year, potentially.
- [00:04:01.540]And in all of these interventions,
- [00:04:03.970]students were told not to bully in over half of the interventions.
- [00:04:07.960]They were told not to be a bystander and to say something,
- [00:04:10.450]if they saw something, but in none of these interventions,
- [00:04:14.530]did they talk about what to do if you're being bullied. And in fact,
- [00:04:18.910]one said that depression was just a by-product of bullying,
- [00:04:22.060]which we know not to be true today.
- [00:04:26.110]Next.
- [00:04:26.440]I asked participants what they had learned outside of school, uh,
- [00:04:29.950]for the most part they had learned from friends, family,
- [00:04:33.910]and then their own research that they had done on the internet and then keeping
- [00:04:38.260]inside and outside of school in mind,
- [00:04:40.090]I asked them if they had learned more inside of school or outside of school,
- [00:04:44.050]and a hundred percent of the participants said they got more from outside of
- [00:04:47.830]school,
- [00:04:48.340]even in communities where the topic was taboo and they felt worried about
- [00:04:53.170]asking.
- [00:04:55.810]I think it's important to note that stigma was a common theme in these
- [00:04:59.680]interviews, despite the fact that I didn't have a specific question for them.
- [00:05:04.180]More than half of the participants mentioned stigma during their interview,
- [00:05:07.780]both in school and in the community,
- [00:05:10.870]it related to people that they knew getting diagnosed and
- [00:05:15.760]being ostracized or going to get help and being ostracized.
- [00:05:19.330]And then the fear of if they were diagnosed or if they went to go get help, being
- [00:05:23.980]ostracized by peers, their family, the community,
- [00:05:27.660]et cetera.
- [00:05:31.410]Next I asked participants,
- [00:05:32.790]if they thought mental illness should be taught in schools.
- [00:05:35.160]And a hundred percent of the participants said, yes.
- [00:05:38.850]They said it was important to them because anyone can experience a mental
- [00:05:42.540]illness.
- [00:05:43.650]And they specifically said that the next generation needs to learn more than
- [00:05:47.430]they learned in their schooling experience.
- [00:05:52.650]Based on
- [00:05:53.130]responses,
- [00:05:53.820]people want to learn more about this topic in more detail from more for the next
- [00:05:58.340]generations. This means not just definitions or a quick chapter,
- [00:06:01.940]but something that's actually talked about established as something that is
- [00:06:05.120]relatively common in the population,
- [00:06:07.340]which would then lead to de-stigmatization of this topic.
- [00:06:10.370]As people learn not to fear it,
- [00:06:14.420]what this should include in the future is talks about signs and symptoms.
- [00:06:18.140]So that way people can identify if they're suffering from a mental illness and
- [00:06:21.980]maybe able to help bring to light some of the signs and symptoms of their peers
- [00:06:26.300]around them, we should also talk about coping mechanisms. So that way,
- [00:06:30.230]if they do fear that they're suffering from a mental illness,
- [00:06:32.720]there's something that can actually be done about them.
- [00:06:35.150]And that knowledge can be carried out into the future.
- [00:06:37.940]We should also talk about stigma so that way students are aware of it.
- [00:06:42.170]And then by talking about it, addressing it and then dismantling it,
- [00:06:45.890]this topic and become more comfortable for the next generations.
- [00:06:49.940]Participants also would like to see talks about bullying,
- [00:06:53.480]including what to do, if you are being bullied.
- [00:06:57.830]That means different coping mechanisms, how to respond in these situations,
- [00:07:02.000]stuff like that. Interaction between mental illness,
- [00:07:05.510]stigma and bullying are all connected and in future efforts,
- [00:07:08.750]these need to be acknowledged.
- [00:07:09.950]So that way we can break the pattern that has been happening over the last
- [00:07:13.940]decade.
- [00:07:17.060]Future research should also focus on the interaction between these three and
- [00:07:21.920]how they perpetuate each other to maintain such high rates of depression,
- [00:07:25.610]anxiety, and suicide among teens and adults.
- [00:07:28.850]Future research should also look at implementing the things mentioned in this
- [00:07:32.870]study and see if that alters the trends that we had been seeing to this point.
- [00:07:37.190]If this becomes a focus of future research,
- [00:07:40.070]we may see future generations with healthier habits and more stable mental
- [00:07:44.180]health. Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
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