Mental health is one of the highest causes of morbidity and mortality in the world at the moment, standing at 16 per cent. Currently, one in every six people in the world is in adolescence. Additionally, most mental health illnesses in the world stem at 13 years of age, and a high number remains undetected in their lives. The magnitude of mental health in teenagers is now a burden to our society. Thus, this paper seeks to elaborate on the impact of mental health in our community, how it affects me as an individual and the current policies in place and why the public should be concerned about it.
Reasons for Concern
Teenage is a stage in life where one is being exposed to the real world. It is a phase in life where social habits, emotional experiences are crafted for the future. The patterns that one acquires sin this life is determinants of their health in their future ( Erskine et al., 2017). Mental health directly impacts the causes of mortality and morbidity in our society today. The high rates of both suicides and crime rates attributed to drug abuse stem from mental health challenges in teenagers. If these issues were addressed early enough, we would have a different society today ( Goddard, 2016). The drug abuse rates in teenagers are prevalent partially because of mental health conditions. Some of these illnesses, such as depression, may lead to these adolescents becoming drunkards, smokers as they use these leisure activities as detours to whatever they face in life ( Goddard, 2016) . Additionally, some conditions such as ADHD are treated by methamphetamines like drugs, which have detrimental long-term effects on bodies like hypertension and addiction rates.
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The experiences teenagers are exposed to contribute to their early life experiences. According to the early childhood reports done by people at risk with early childhood experiences are less likely to care about others, less about their health, which contributes to mortality and morbidity in society.
Polices
The first step taken by both the government and community is to increase the stakeholders involved in adolescent mental health. In collaboration with hospitals and non-governmental organizations, the government has provided guidelines through which we seek to tackle mental health in teenagers. In line with increasing the stakeholders, the use of local and international popular brands to pass on the mental health agenda also has a considerable impact ( Eckert et al., 2017) . Teenagers are hugely involved in sports and entertainment, and thus the use of famous sports brands and singers who target these teenagers’ helps pass the mental health message.
The provision of adequate training and enabling the school environment in society has made counselling, and mental health curriculums introduced it to schools ( Eckert et al.,2017) Most parents and children are unaware that mental health is a health problem, so the fundamental idea has been to increase its awareness and primary management. The government has also increased policies that reduce the stigma that surrounds mental health amongst teenagers ( Hart, 2017).
The role of research has also been undertaken to understand the mental health challenges that these teenagers face. The acquisition of this data helps create targeted management methods that work with efficacy. The government has also increased its funding hospitals, which stem from the intervention above. The management of mental health is expensive, which forces the government to increase its budgetary allocation.
Personally, mental health has become a target area for me due to my personal experiences and witnessing what others go through without talking about their minds. As a young teenager, I was faced with a lot of challenges that made me depressed. I thought that this was normal and couldn’t look anywhere for help. Their teenagers face bipolar challenges, yet we keep ignoring them and eventually, some commit suicide ( Paschall & Bersamin, 2018) . Mental health is far worse in teenagers since whatever they acquire at the moment, might stick with them in the future. If these teenagers lack the voice to speak now, we may foster as a society that doesn’t understand the impact of mental health on our lives. It is time to break this cascade.
The high rates of mortalities and morbidity that stem from mental health go out unmentioned yet affect who we are ( Paschall & Bersamin, 2018) . Other infectious diseases such as kill hundreds, but the diseases that have influenced us for decades are uncared for. Thus it is the right time to step and address mental health.
The society at large should address mental health in teenagers since this affects us all. The community of tomorrow is dependent on what our teenagers are now and how they are guided today. Thus we need to address all mental health challenges that affect our society individually so that we can have a more productive society tomorrow. This will also enable us to focus on and address other issues in the community in terms of resource allocation.
Furthermore, how our teenagers behave today affects our mental health too. Parents are most stressed when their children are in teenage, and thus if we holistically approach mental health, then we would progress as a society.
References
Eckert, M. D., Nishimura, S. T., Oka, L., Barber, S., Fleming, L., Hishinuma, E. S., ... & Guerrero, A. P. (2017). A pilot school-based rural mental health consultation program utilizing an innovative stakeholder partnership at a diverse elementary school— Journal of Rural Mental Health , 41 (4), 263.
Erskine, H. E., Baxter, A. J., Patton, G., Moffitt, T. E., Patel, V., Whiteford, H. A., & Scott, J. G. (2017). The global coverage of prevalence data for mental disorders in children and adolescents. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences , 26 (4), 395-402.
Goddard, C. (2016). Teenage Mental Health: Troubled teens left in limbo. Nursery World , 2016 (11), 10-11.
Hart, T. (2017). How do teenage school children, experiencing significant emotional, mental health difficulties, perceive they can be better supported at school? Education and Health , 35 (2), 26.
Paschall, M. J., & Bersamin, M. (2018). School-based health centres, depression, and suicide risk among adolescents. American journal of preventive medicine , 54 (1), 44-50.
