One in Five students experiences a mental health concern in any given year.
That's one in five of us.

70% of mental health problems begin in childhood or adolescence.
That's not easy to go through alone.

One point two million children and youth are affected by mental illness,
but less than twenty percent are treated.
Only one in five are treated.

Nearly one quarter of the first nations youth reported psychological distress.
How do we help?

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens.
Suicide.


My name is Andréanne Fleck, I'm a social worker
and I'm also an implementation coach with School Mental Health Assist.

My name is Dr. Amy Cheung,
and I'm a psychiatrist working at the University of Toronto
and at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
I work with young people and their families who are struggling with mental illness.

You are uniquely positioned as a teacher in the classroom
to notice when students aren't doing very well,
to notice when they're in distress
or when things aren't seeming quite right for them.

The first thing to remember is that it is not your job
to diagnose whether a student has a mental illness or not.

There are a few simple things that you can do
to help yourself feel more confident,
the first is to educate yourself,
to learn about different mental illnesses,
the second is to find the resources
that are available to you in your school setting,
there's nothing like having a backup
to make you feel confident about what you're doing.

Often times when I see teenagers who are in distress
they don't feel comfortable sharing their difficulties with their parents.

One of the most important things you want to do as a teacher
is open up that conversation in your classroom.

One of the primary obstacles to accessing care
for students or for anyone for that matter,
is the stigma attached to
getting help for mental illness, or for any kind of mental health problem.

I'm sure that many of you will start the school year by talking about
your approach to teaching, and your approach to learning
and how you're always open for them to approach you
if they're struggling with difficulties in their learning.

You can do the same thing
about mental health and mental illness,
you can talk about the fact that you are a caring adult in their life
and that they can approach you if they're struggling with other
areas in their life such as mental health.

The more we talk about it,
the easier it is for students to open up about it
and access the supports that they need,
when they need it, if they need it.

There is definitely a difference between mental illness and mental distress.
Mental illness, like depression
is like any other physical illness that someone can experience over their lifetime.
It is like diabetes, or asthma, or cancer.

Mental distress on the other hand
is when someone is struggling with a difficulty in their life
and is feeling unwell about it,
emotionally unwell.

It's important to recognize that
though students can continue to be mentally healthy,
they may also be struggling with some of these mental health problems.

So common signs of mental illness can change
depending on the age of the student that you're working with,
in younger kids because they're unable to verbalize what's going on
they might behave badly, quote unquote,
they might have emotional outbursts,
they might get into fights with their friends,
they might not be able to focus or sit still.

As a student gets older,

and as they're able to verbalize more what is going on,
they may share with you their fears,
their anxieties,
or their sad feelings.

They will also start to struggle with more academic work,
being able to complete work on time,
and being able to do well in classroom settings.

As we hit adolescence,
students will start to withdraw from their friends,
and they may start to become very defiant,
with their teachers and with their families.

Unfortunately some of your students will have experienced
abuse in their life and this may be in the form of
psychological, verbal,
or physical abuse.

Abuse can a significant impact on your student,
and it can impact significantly on their mental health,
in fact,
the majority of students who experience abuse
will go on to develop depression or anxiety as teenagers.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people in Canada,
and is it very important that you identify students
who have thoughts of suicide or hopelessness,
and you address it right away.

If you see a student that you're concerned about,
remember that by the time you notice something is going on,
the problems have probably been going on for much longer.

Mental health can have a significant long term impact on students
because childhood and adolescence is such an important time for young people
to develop their abilities to relate to other people,
to learn, and to even grow physically.

Having mental illness during that time
can really impact on their outcome as adults.

It doesn't really matter whether a student that you're concerned about
is experiencing mental illness or mental distress
because your approach to them would be the same,
you would want to approach a student individually
where you can speak to them in a safe environment
and they can discuss things in a confidential manner.

As you develop a relationship with your students,
they are bound to turn to you for extra support.

They may also want to disclose things that may be more confidential,
and so it's really important to let students know
that you're there to support them in every way that you can,
but you have a professional responsibility
to report it to someone else who is in a better position to help you.

You can identify students in your classroom who are struggling,
but it is not your job to diagnose their mental illness,
that is the job of the professional who can back you up
and it is important as a teacher for you to identify
who those professionals are in your school setting.

It's very important for you to understand
what the policies and procedures are around mental health
and mental health supports within your school board
so that you can know where to turn to
when one of your students might be in distress or maybe struggling
and you're not quite sure what to do.

There are several resources that you can turn to,
there are some online tutorials, for instance
that are available through School Mental Health Assist,
but you may also consult with your principal,
to find out what some of those credible resources are,
you've got your school team that can help you identify
and figure out what the internal school supports might be,
your mental health leader at your school board for instance,
some schools have access to social workers,
or psychology staff who are extremely knowledgeable in this area as well,
so make sure you take advantage of all those resources
because they're there to support you.

As a community, we're all here to help our students flourish
and get the help that they need,
don't ever feel like you're in this alone,
there are many of us to help you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks,

for looking out for us.