By Lex Cornell
Recently the US has noticed an increase in mental health issues and disorders, especially after the covid-19 pandemic, many youth and children are dealing with more than one mental health problem without receiving treatment, According to the CDC’s data and statistics, “ADHD, anxiety problems, behavior problems, and depression are the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in children. Estimates forever having a diagnosis among children aged 3-17 years, in 2016-19, are ADHD 9.8% (approximately 6.0 million), Anxiety 9.4% (approximately 5.8 million), Behavior problems 8.9% (approximately 5.5 million), and Depression 4.4% (approximately 2.7 million).” 1 out of every 3 children and youth from this study is left untreated, many suffering alone and unable to get help. This leaves people wondering who is going to be able to support these children when they get out of school and take on the world themselves, and how we as community can support and help our younger generation of leaders. In 2017 a mental health survey, in Rochester, N.Y. (13WHAM) - found that “results released in the Monroe County Youth Risk Behavior Survey show a number of teens and young adults considered committing suicide in the last year Among the findings in that survey, 14% say they considered killing themselves, while 7% reported attempting suicide.” In East High School we are seeing some of the effects of what untreated mental illness can do to our schools and communities, students are being more aggressive and violent with the staff and other peers in school. This, in turn, leads to more students developing mental illness, which can increase suicide rates. The leading cause is how the community and schools are correlated between the violence in the community and lack of support in school settings for students with undiagnosed untreated mental illness or mental disorders. We as a community should care about this issue because these students are going to go out into the community, and they could be in a situation that could be harmful to others and themselves.
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