Teachers, increasingly concerned about mental problems in children and adolescents
The mental health of students worries teachers more than any other issue related to their well-being, according to a survey carried out among more than 1,180 teachers in the United Kingdom and which ensures that two out of every three teachers mention the mental problems of children and adolescents as their main concern.
The study, although carried out in the United Kingdom, tells us a lot about how society evolves and what seem to be the growing problems of the present. In fact, behind the mental problems of the students, what worries British teachers the most is the domestic violence and cyberbullying who suffer their pupils.
In all these cases the professors assure that they feel worried because they do not they know how to support and help their students, according to the British public broadcaster BBC, which has echoed this worrying survey in the Anglo-Saxon country.
Family context
"Without a doubt, there is a significant increase of students with mental problems," says Brian Lightman, representative of the association of school directors ASCL. As he explains, this is usually related to conflicting family contexts or after going through some type of abuse, as well as other types of mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The survey, carried out by the company 'The Key', has also found that many British schools have chosen to hire their own team of psychologists with the aim of giving the best psychological help to their students.
Still, another representative of north London schools has assured the BBC that this is not the solution, and has put on the table the need to carry out a whole state pact to help this class of young people who, either because they come from conflictive environments or because they have suffered negative experiences in their lives, are suffering some disorders that, if not treated from the first moment, can have very negative consequences in your adult life.
Internet and Smartphones
This attention call is related to a controversial statement by a well-known child psychotherapist in the United Kingdom called Julie Lynn Evans. As he said in March of this year, the arrival of smartphones and Internet access It has elevated the cases of mental problems in adolescents.
According to him, the problem is growing because every time there is more cases of young people trying to take their own lives. "In the '80s, I had one or two suicide attempts a year, mainly by teenagers who did drug's use. Currently, I can have up to four in one month, "he told the British newspaper The Telegraph.
The psychotherapist also referred to the official data of the British government: the emergency income in the rooms of child psychiatry they have doubled in the last four years in both children and young people. In fact, self-harming teens have increased 70 percent this decade.
"Something is happening, the number of people who come to my practice has increased and problems usually have to do with the computer, the Internet or mobile phones", warned the expert, who was especially concerned about cyberbullying, something that is nothing new but has worsened with new technologies.
Given this, the expert recommended the parents of young people to monitor in a more continuous way what their children do with smartphones. Evans is clear: children should not have their privacy on mobile phones until they show a certain mental maturity.
Also at this point urges parents to set an example: they should leave the mobile aside more often. Thus, he concluded by saying that it is necessary to find a balance so that the youngest find the valuable qualities of life in different places and not only through the Internet.
Angela R. Bonachera
