IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION IN OUR SOCIETY

 

Knowledge is power, Information is liberating, Education is the premise of progress in our society and even family.Leading to this, let us explore why  mental health awareness through education is important in our societies. Awareness create change.

Mental Health Education is the promotion of well-being, the prevention of mental disorder. Mental health includes: our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affect how we think,feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices.Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescent through adulthood.

Mental health education is must as it create awareness and a healthy curiosity, it is as equally important as physical health.

Physical health can be seen. Eg: when we fall over and damage a limb it is evident, so we apply the relevant aid to ensure it heals, But with the mind, when we stumble and struggle the damage isn't visible and makes it difficult to apply the same care at times. As we cannot visibly track how we are healing. It becomes easier to over look. 

Considering the onset of mental health issues mostly occurs during our teen years, it makes sense to incorporate mental health education into the national curriculum. The way our young people will come to learn, question and understand mental health is through education.

It is time to erase the misconception that those suffering mental illness are violent and lazy etc.negative labels like this stick and circulate due to lack of awareness and education is our most power tool in eradicating these outdated misconception.

Types Of Mental Health Education

=> Anxiety disorder

=> personality disorder

=> psychotic disorder

=> eating disorder.

How To Educate Mental Health

1-: Educate staff, parents and students on symptoms of and help for mental health problem.

2-: promote social and  emotional competency and build resilience.

3-:  help ensure a positive safe school environment.

4-: teach and reinforce positive behavior and decision making.

5-: encourage helping others.

Remember with knowledge comes the power allowing us to contribute and make positive change to erase fallacies around mental health, also lack of awareness around mental health and well-being is no longer " problem; isn't it about time that we recognize it is " our problem as a society?

Elemi Anthiona Martha

OS/21B/ 4372

Mass communication

Delta state polytechnic ogwashiuku

Cross-River state.