Today’s teachers are facing off with a national student mental health crisis.
One year ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association declared a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health, pointing to soaring hospitalization rates for mental health crises among children and teens. In October, they observed the anniversary of that declaration by sending a joint letter to the Biden administration asking members to issue a National Emergency Declaration, which would free up critical federal funding for identification and treatment of mental health disorders.
Across the state, teachers are seeking additional resources to help their students cope with increased levels of depression and anxiety, and more teachers are incorporating practices to improve student mental health into their everyday classroom routines.
“Today’s schools are asking their teachers to do much more with mental health, and they’re on the frontlines of this crisis, but most teachers are not trained to do that,” said Chris Conti, Education and Learning Trust (ELT) instructor and member of the BOCES Staff Association of Rockland County. His course, “The Happiness Classroom,” offered for the first time this year, details numerous strategies that teachers can use to improve students’ outlooks.
Rooted in positive psychology, Conti’s 10-session course does not wait until a student is in crisis; instead, the course trains educators to help students build sustaining habits that have been proven to ward off despair and insulate them against anxiety. Here, Conti shares some of those habits and why they work so well:
