Mental Health in Teenagers

According to a study report published by the State of Mental Health in America this year, the rate of mental health issues among teenagers has increased; the rate increased by 1.245 compared to last year’s report (“The State of Mental Health In America”, n.d.). Further, 60% of these teenagers do not receive mental health treatment (“The State of Mental Health In America”, n.d.). Additionally, CDC has highlighted suicide as one of the leading causes of death among teenagers. Therefore, this is a serious issue that needs addressing. Mental issues lead to suicide, emotional disorders, behavioral disorders, eating disorders, and self-harm. While solving these problems will take a long time, the best way to reduce the risk of developing a mental health condition and its adverse effects is to make mental health treatment readily available. As the statistics indicate, the number of teenagers with mental health disorders continues to increase; therefore, the current policies on tackling these issues have not been effectively working and need to be revised.

According to a study done by Radez et al. (2021), one of the main reasons teenagers do not get mental health treatment is the stigma around mental health illnesses and the lack of knowledge on the matter. This is supported by research that shows that Asians rank the lowest regarding accessing mental health issues due to the stigma their culture has on the matter (Karasz et al., 2019). If I were president of the United States, I would implement policies that worked toward normalizing mental health issues, like any other illness, such as diabetes. One of the ways to do this is by mandating that schools adopt a mental health program that should be taught in all classes; this strategy would help educate the students on the issues. Further, I would allocate more funds towards social work so that they can be able to provide mental health services to children they come across, for instance, in domestic violence cases and drug abuse. Further, I would find ways to involve healthcare organizations in the matter. For example, a medical checkup should also include a mental health checkup.

References

Karasz, A., Gany, F., Escobar, J., Flores, C., Prasad, L., Inman, A., … & Diwan, S. (2019). Mental health and stress among South Asians. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 21(1), 7-14.

Radez, J., Reardon, T., Creswell, C., Lawrence, P. J., Evdoka-Burton, G., & Waite, P. (2021). Why do children and adolescents (not) seek and access professional help for their mental health problems? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 30(2), 183-211.

“The State of Mental Health In America”. (n.d.). Mental Health America 2022, https://www.mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america.

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The purpose of this assignment is to investigate what laws in the United States should be changed to promote better mental health.

Mental Health in Teenagers

If you were president of the United States, what laws would you change to promote better mental health? These laws can be from (but not limited to) drug possession, incarceration, securing more employee protections, providing more supportive working environments for women in regards to sexual harassment, breastfeeding, receiving equitable pay, not being penalized for taking time off from paid work to take care of an infant/child or parent, etc. Upload your assignment as a Word document, 500 words, double-spaced, APA format.