Hello! My inquiry question is “What are the effects of stigma against mental health?” For this blog post, I am going to be researching “How does stigma against mental health affect our education system and how does this affect our students?
The lack of resources is due to stigma against mental health. Stigma is rooted in our system. Stigma can be traced back in Canada to the 1800s when Canadian immigration laws prohibited people suspected to have mental illnesses and mental disabilities were barred from entering the country (1).
Education is supposed to give students the tools to work through our struggles, including mental health. However, a survey conducted by the Mental Health Commission in Canada in 2016 says that “over 80% of respondents indicated that there are unmet student mental health in their board or school” (2).
In 2019, the government announced that they provided $11.9 million in funds for the next three years thereafter for B.C’s Mental Health in Schools Strategy (3). As a student who started high school in 2019, I have never been taught about mental health in school.
Without the proper education on mental health some may not even know they suffer with a mental illness. It is important that people with a mental illness get treated as it can result in poor quality of life, substance abuse, homeless, etc, (4).
Another thing that occurs to those who are isolated from information is that they seek it out on the internet. This can create dangerous coping methods (5). They do this because they feel so alone in their struggle that they cannot turn to their support system such as their friends and family.
What can we do as a community?
Dr. Charlotte Waddell, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, believes that youth shouldn’t have to advocate for their rights to mental health services (3). Rather, they should share that their needs are not being met.
- https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-preventing-discrimination-based-mental-health-disabilities-and-addictions/appendix-historical-context
- https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/wp-content/uploads/drupal/ChildYouth_School_Based_Mental_Health_Canada_Final_Report_ENG_0.pdf
- https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/02/11/BC-Claims-Mental-Well-Being-Taught-In-Schools-Students-Disagree/
- https://namica.org/what-is-mental-illness/