Mental Health Days: One Way We Can Support Students

By: Julianne Emberger

October 31, 2022

As time goes by, expectations on students of all ages continually increase. The demands rise and the assignments pile up each new year of schooling. With this increased pressure, it takes a toll on students mental health especially when they are not getting the proper support from schools. 

According to Supporting Student Mental Health in Higher Education, "Mental Health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community." Achieving this state for students can be challenging when the schools are not set up accommodate to their mental health needs. 

One way schools can support students mental health is by offering mental health days. Mental health days are days that students can take to rest and recharge their minds. They are used to provide them with the needed break from pressure and expectations and offer students many benefits such as a brain recharge, the spark of open conversations about mental health, and the ability to learn and monitor their mental health needs and communicate them. These days would be used spent using productive activities such as reading, going on a walk, drawing, and exercising. These activities are mindless and help children recharge their brain with activities that aren't strenuous and don't involve their iPad or tablet. 

States that allow student mental health days, verywellmind.com

One reason for mental health days includes the idea that with an already exerted and mentally exhausted brain, students aren't able to fully comprehend and internalize the new information they are learning because their brains are in overdrive. Students need to be given the time to recharge so that when presented with new information and learning, they are able to fully process the information. As Matt Shenker said in the article, "States Are Now Accepting "Mental Health Day" as a Valid Reason for Missing School," "Giving students mental health days makes teaching and learning more effective as students will grasp concepts sooner and retain them more deeply if they experience less chronic stress." Mental health days will ultimately provide a stronger learning experience for children. If the goal of schooling is to have a rich learning experience, then schools should be doing everything they can to promote this. 

Another benefit of mental health days is that they will start up conversations between children and parents, even grandparents, about mental health. It can help break down the stigma around mental health disorders by having open conversations with parents and guardians. This will help students feel more accepted and heard both at home and in school because both places are actively accommodating to their mental state. "According to the CDC, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, and behavior problems are the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in kids." The majority of children's time are spent in schools, so schools need to be equipped to support students with these mental health disorders. 

This will also help kids learn to manage and monitor their mental health and help them become more comfortable communicating their mental state. Kids should be able to express how they truly feel but in order to do so, they need the adults in their lives to be open and accommodating to their mental health needs. 

It is important for kids of all ages to learn that it is okay to share how you are feeling and it is healthy to do so. When kids bottle their feelings up inside, it only adds to the burnout they may already be experiencing. 

Some people may argue and dismiss children's mental health because "it is just kids being kids trying to get out of going to school," but this is obviously not the case. Adults may see it as such but mental health disorders are on the rise for kids. One in six children ages six through seventeen experience a mental disorder. The continual dismissal of their mental health needs as "kids being kids" only exasperates the problem. These children need their grandparents, guardians, and schools support. In the case of mental health, it is not appropriate for anyone to invalidate these children's feelings. Doing as such, only shows them that they need to hide their feelings and bury it because no one sees their emotions as legitimate. 

Family and schooling are the two main factors in children's lives growing up and it is important that these forces work together to properly display to children that what they experience is worthy of their attention. 

                                        

With the implementation of mental health days for students, the school system and guardians would be showing kids that their mental health is valid and important. Conversations of mental state should start young so that support can be given to students when they need it. If students aren't taught to take care of their mental state and communicate about it, their burn out may continue throughout the years. In the U.S, there needs to be more implementation of these days. Mental health days would allow students to take the mental break they need to rest, and it would show them how to properly cope with their mental health obstacles in a healthy and productive way. In a system that doesn't acknowledge mental health as much as it should, mental health days are one way schools can be and should be more supportive and accommodating to students mental health needs.