Teach-Secondary-14.1

Most of my week is spent visiting schools and colleges, delivering workshops and conducting research on mental health. On Saturdays, however, I host a show on LBC, one of the UK’s most popular speech radio stations. Every show, without fail, at least one caller drops a truth bomb so profound, I carry it withme during the week ahead. One suchmoment recently occurred when we were responding to the findings of MIND’s latest Attitudes to Mental Illness survey (see tiny.cc/ts141-ND1 ). The survey revealed – tragically, yet unsurprisingly – that stigma, mental health related-knowledge and intended behaviour towards people withmental health problems have regressed to 2009 levels. Divide and conquer I have my own theory as to why this has happened. During the previous Conservative administration, high profile politicians, as well as much of the Tory-supporting media, had been heavily implying (if not overtly stating) that mental health awareness had ‘gone too far’. There appeared to be concerted efforts at linking mental ill health to unemployment, and widely repeated suggestions that most people unable to work were opting for a certain ‘lifestyle’ choice. In a classic ‘divide and conquer’ move, the implied messages conveyed by all this activity were ‘ It’s really easy to get a mental health or neurodivergence diagnosis ’ (it isn’t), ‘ Sickness payments from the welfare state are incredibly generous ’ (they aren’t), and ‘ People not working are getting something that you, the incredibly hard-working taxpayer, should feel resentful about ’ (you shouldn’t). I also believe that the rise inmental health stigma may have something to do with the enduring lack of specificity most of us deploy when discussing mental health issues. I frequently hear teachers tell me, ‘ [This pupil] says they have exam stress, but it’s normal to be stressed about exams! They just have to deal with it! ’ The first part of that statement is obviously true. The second requires further analysis. ‘Exam stress’ isn’t a diagnosable mental illness comparable to clinical depression or an anxiety disorder – but that’s not to say that it doesn’t merit the offer of some additional support. ‘Overlydramatic’ As with ‘physical health’, the term ‘mental health’ covers an enormous number of conditions. There are the mental health equivalents of sustaining a bruise or catching a cold – and then there are the equivalents of breaking a leg, or being diagnosed with cancer. Each will require very different responses. Also similar to physical health symptoms is the way in which mental health issues can worsen over time if left unattended. Amental health issue like exam stress might require the psychological equivalent of a plaster and some antiseptic cream, but that doesn’t render it completely unimportant. Our classifications shouldn’t be restricted to just ‘ Things that we refer to clinical services ’ and ‘ Things we can afford to simply ignore ’. My caller, however, had a different take. “ We went through those years of people being quite empathetic, ” she said, “ but I see society as the equivalent of that friend who creates a fake state of it being okay to talk about how you feel, but once you have, says you’re being ‘overly dramatic’ ” I asked if one could paraphrase what she was saying in the following way: The next logical step, after awareness- raising, is for us to change howwe do things, and whilst most people are prepared to be sympathetic, very fewwill inconvenience themselves in reality. She agreed. A lackof tools This is, of course, quite a negative take on how individual human beings behave. Many of us want to be helpful, but are hampered by a lack of suitable tools. School staff will often require support from community services, in order to have a sufficiently comprehensive mental health support system in place for pupils. Yet the fact remains that CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) are incredibly stretched. Educational psychologists were all but dispensed with entirely under austerity measures imposed after 2010, as were other important resources that previously enabled schools to holistically support their young people. Recognising how little practical help we might be able to provide or facilitate can lead us to become (understandably) overwhelmed. But shutting down the conversation in response to that overwhelmwon’t make the problem disappear. In fact, as MIND’s survey shows, it only makes it worse. If we want to know why attitudes towards mental health seem to be regressing, we could start by looking at how vital support services have been denuded of resources, and how the complexity of mental health conditions have been deliberately downplayed Natasha Devon Natasha Devon is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner on issues relating to education and mental health; to find out more, visit natashadevon.com or follow @_NatashaDevon 25 teachwire.net/secondary S C H O O L O F T H O U G H T