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17/11/15 – Mental Health in Education
ver the past decade there has been a slight rise in mental health awareness,
but it is still underestimated as a serious medical condition. It is estimated
that 1 in 4 people will experience problems with mental health, out of the
population of the UK that’s 15 MILLION people. At some point in their life and 1 in 10
young people will experience a mental health problem.
The extent of support for mental health doesn’t seem to be radically increasing
either especially with the government planning to cut spending from £5.86 billion to
£5.74 billion by 2019.
An area where mental health is incredibly underestimated is with young people in
the education system. The stress of exams and friendships I too easily shrugged off
as a ‘phase’ when in reality it can be something much worse. Research by the BBC
discovered that more than one in six students believe at least a quarter of students
in their school or college are affected by mental health problems.
Could underwhelming amounts of attention and solutions, be due to lack of
awareness and ignorance, or is it just because people don’t care and have the view
point that mentally ill people should just ‘cheer up’?
Reports suggest one issue with diagnosing these problems is because students are
simply not confident enough to speak to a doctor about how they feel. Perhaps
because practically none of school curriculums go towards informing students about
the issue, with two-thirds of teachers admitting their school did not devote enough
time and resources to mental health issues..
BBC 2 is presenting a brilliant documentary focusing on how those in education are
affected by mental health problems and why there is such as distinct
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lack of help for them.
This groundbreaking documentary will explore the ins and outs of the education
system and those students involved who suffer from mental health issues and why
they may not be receiving the help they require. We will also meet various students
and expose their knowledge and how aware they are that their colleagues that they
meet every day may be suffering from health issues without them knowing.
The filmpresents various in-depth and revolutionary interviews with students and
members of staff from Solihull Sixth Form College. This includes Psychology
professional and teacher Tom Krawec and academic coach Rebecca Parsons, who
both have a wealth of experience in the matter. These interviews not only give an
insight into the help available to students, but also to how they are affected. With
Tom Krawec stating, “In terms of people who are affected by mental health, 100% of
people in the UK are affected one way or another at some point in their life”.
The team behind the film discovered the shocking truth of how aware students our
about the affects mental health problems have on students with incredibly shocking
results begging the question, Is enough being done in the standard curriculum to
ensure young people are well informed on the serious topic surrounding mental
health.
We caught up with an exclusive interview with the creators of the film for a Q&A to
get the inside scoop on the theory and passion behind the film.
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Q What was the idea behind creating this documentary and what message are you
aiming to convey?
A Our main aims were to create a more represented awareness within teenagers
about the severity of mental health and hope to allow them to understand more
about what their fellow students may be going through without them even knowing.
Q What was the motive when choosing Solihull Sixth Form College to do a lot of the
filming?
A We felt the college had a huge variety of social interest with students having
many different hobbies therefore there would be a lot of different points of view
and different amounts of knowledge about the topic. The staff members there are
also very qualified and were exceptionally helpful when it came to getting interviews
and other information.
Q Did you find it difficult to explore a lot of areas of the subject while also trying not
to sound insensitive about a sensitive issue?
A Throughout all of the filming we tried as hard as possible make sure the content
we were producing would not offend anyone. This meant keeping interview
questions impersonal and also not scrutinizing those who are affected by mental
health problems who may be watching the documentary.
This Q&A has given us a good idea of what we can expect from the film, which will
be airing on BBC 2 on Saturday 6th February 2016 and will arm teenagers with the
information they need to fight mental health.
ENDS