Mental health issues can significantly impair a student's ability to learn and succeed academically. A mental wellbeing training module is available to support the teaching of mental wellbeing as part of this curriculum. Professional supervision enables leaders to work with qualified and experienced supervisors to develop strategies to support their mental wellbeing. Guidance developed with school leaders to improve workload and wellbeing for school staff is available. School and college teachers and leaders can access support for their own wellbeing and to address challenges around workload.

Creating Supportive Learning Environments

Rather than viewing obstacles in isolation, she instinctively considers how policy choices around issues including housing, healthcare access and education may limit a client’s options. LaTour credits her coursework in social policy, particularly the emphasis on clear, concise policy memo writing, with preparing her for graduate school and later, professional life. That connection between policy and mental health has followed LaTour to Indiana where she now works with LGBTQ+ clients and sees firsthand how mental health can be shaped by state‑level policy decisions.

What factors contribute to students’ mental health challenges?

Data reveal young people today show troubling signs of declining mental health, raising alarm among parents, educators, health professionals, and policymakers and creating an urgent need for solutions. Students’ mental health challenges encompass overall social, emotional, and behavioral health challenges such as gambling feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness or thoughts of self-harm. Research shows that good mental health is key to the success of all children and adolescents in school and life.

• Some states are starting to recognize the urgency of mental health investment.
• Emerging trends shaping the intersection of education policy and mental health include the integration of mental health services within schools, increased focus on social-emotional learning (SEL), and the implementation of trauma-informed practices.
• Handbook of school-based mental health promotion an evidence-informed framework for implementation.

Attending to student mental health exemplifies the complex relationships between health and educational attainment, given the effects of mental disorders on student motivation and attention, school engagement, absenteeism, early school completion and learning outcomes, and the knowledge of how school connectedness predicts mental health (15, 16, 49). The second finding was the importance of schools engaging in health-promoting actions that are universal in their scope, that is, are aimed at all students. We identified three major findings from this synthesis of 16 UN agency global policy documents on school mental health promotion.

People vulnerable to or experiencing mental illness may find it easier to engage with social media to support their own health. Understanding just how widespread social media use has become sets the stage for why its effects on mental health matter so much. Researchers and clinicians are paying closer attention to how social media use affects mental health and overall well-being. For some, social media offers community and support they may not find elsewhere. These guidelines included traits such as treating patients equally, showing empathy, not stigmatizing mental health conditions, not enabling suicidal thoughts or delusions, and challenging a patient’s thinking when appropriate. By regularly assessing policy implementation and outcomes, schools can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.