Why mental health desperately needs to be on the national curriculum

In the past week I have read two articles that have lead me to write this short post. One was in The Guardian, which you can read here and the other one can be seen here

Needless to say I agree with the sentiments wholeheartedly and feel mental health education should be a core part of a young persons development, especially considering the sheer number of people that will experience a mental health issue.

Speaking for myself and from experience, I remember the sheer confusion and alienation I felt when my own issues started to arise. With no understanding of what was happening and why I was feeling the way I was, I suddenly felt very isolated and withdrawn. I started down a well worn path of damaging behaviours to try and make myself feel better, or at the very least, try and restore some order to what was now a strange world.

I strongly believe that had there been a framework in place whereby I had been educated on mental health matters as a matter of course then things could have improved far quicker for me then they have.

I’m talking about simple awareness of the issues alongside education on how to tackle them. Now more then ever with the ever increasing knowledge we have of mental illnesses and different ways to treat them we should be giving our young people the tools to deal with and simply understand mental health.

Mental health education would also dovetail well with our increasing focus on improving our youngsters fitness and diet. Mental health education should be part of an overarching program to promote healthy bodies and also healthy minds.

Educating young people will also only help society move further forward on the way people with mental issues are viewed.