Culture & Identity

Minds Matter Magazine Volume III Issue I Culture & Identity Minds Matter Magazine Volume III Issue I Culture & Identity
A culture without early mental health education
can leave youth isolated and confused.
They may not know what they are experiencing
or how to reach out for help.
Elizabeth Baker was diagnosed with
depression and anxiety in her first year of
university, but it was in Grade six that she
first thought about self-harm.
Baker attended Good Shepherd Catholic
Elementary School from 2003 to 2009.
She says she does not remember the school
teaching about mental illnesses or mental
health. She feels this will influence her for
the rest of her life.
The first time Baker learned about
mental health was in Grade 9 health class, at
the age of 14.
“I remember feeling kind of weird,”
she says. “It was the first time I’d heard of it,
and it was all kind of scary stuff.”
But the introduction to this education
was late in Baker’s experience with mental
illness. She was in Grade 10 when her selfharm
hit a peak.
“I found that when I started to get
angry or upset about anything, I didn’t know
how to cope with it,” she says. “That’s why I
turned to self-harm.”
Baker’s experience reflects a generational
gap in mental health education. Her
parents were not understanding when it
came to mental illness. In high school, the
only teacher she confided in then told her
parents. Feeling judged and isolated, Baker
decided to keep her mental health issues
secret.
“Elementary schools need to prepare
students for what they’re going to face and
the different people they’re going to meet
and the issues they’re going to go through.
There needs to be some discussion.”
In an article exploring how education
should be taught in Canadian schools, psychiatrist
Stanley Kutcher says that mental health
should be introduced in Grade 8, as that is
when most mental disorders begin to manifest.
Yet, according to the Canadian Mental
Health Association of Toronto, suicide is the
second leading cause of death for Canadians
between the ages of 10 - when children in
Ontario are in Grade 4 - and 24.
Canadian psychiatrist Alexa Bagnall reported
that adolescents who seek help often
know very little about mental illness. A BMC
Public Health study found that mental health
was a factor in 24 per cent of teenagers who
dropped out of high school. One of the largest
factors in this are high rates of anxiety
and a lack of understanding on healthy methods
of dealing with stress.
Full-time elementary school students
spend around 195 days per year in school.
At around six hours every day, at least 13 per
cent of a child’s life is spent in school every
year. Discussing mental health in classrooms
will allow the normalization of mental health
discussion, rather than isolating and addressing
only the individual who experiences
mental health issues. These
students then grow to create a culture of
adults that are educated and comfortable
with mental health.
School boards across Ontario are now
realizing the importance of early mental
health education. Ontario Shores has begun
funding a curriculum in the Durham Region
aimed at increasing awareness about mental
illnesses. Their goal is to expand this curriculum
across the rest of Ontario.
In 2011, the Government of Ontario
released Open Minds, Healthy Minds: Ontario’s
Comprehensive Mental Health and
Addictions Strategy, which introduced more
mental health programming, tailored from
childhood to old age. The implementation of
their plan began with early intervention and
support for children and youth in Ontario.
It required school boards across Ontario to
create specific mental health action plans.
The Toronto District School Board
(TDSB) created a 30-page five-year plan in
2013, following a survey they had released
the year before. In the survey, staff identified
that a stronger approach to mental health
was necessary for the students’ well being.
Their plan aims to help educators recognize
when students are experiencing distress and
how to support them in their pathway to
better mental health. It also gives suggestions
on how to discuss mental health with
parents and students at both the elementary
and secondary level to maintain the support
throughout education.
The Durham District School Board
(DDSB) released a 36-page five-year plan in
2013. The plan was implemented in support
of the board’s decisions to implement first
aid in mental health, fight stigma, and establish
a mental health committee by partnering
with mental health organizations. By June
2013, the school board planned for each
elementary and secondary school to have
at least one staff member trained in mental
health first aid.
But Baker’s elementary school, Good
Shepherd Catholic Elementary School, is in
the Durham Catholic District School Board.
The school board’s action plan, released in
2014, is only eight pages long with no lesson
plans or outlines.
Baker says if mental health had been
addressed earlier, she “would like to think
maybe things would have been different.”
32
33