More than three-quarters of Americans (84%) believe school staff play a crucial role in identifying signs of mental health problems in students, but less than half (45%) believe most school staff have been trained in identifying these concerns, according to the latest Healthy Minds Monthly Poll, commissioned by APA and fielded by Morning Consult.
As children begin to return to school this month, the poll found that Americans are widely supportive of education about mental health in school, with 89% saying that students should be educated about mental health and the same number saying that school staff should participate in mental health trainings. The poll was conducted on July 22, 2024, among a sample of 2,223 adults.
In a statement, APA President Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc., affirmed the importance of mental health training for school staff. “When school staff and students have access to good quality mental health education, they are more prepared if they or someone they know is struggling,” Viswanathan said. “One of the best things we can do in light of the youth mental health crisis is to give children and teenagers, and the people that are around them most days, the tools to understand what to do if someone isn’t feeling right.”
Respondents to the Healthy Minds poll said they believe cyberbullying/bullying (42%), mental health (32%), and social media (30%) are the most concerning issues negatively affecting K-12 students today. While more than a quarter of parents (29%) are not confident that their school staff has the training to help students with mental health concerns, 82% believe that school staff would initiate a conversation with them about their child’s mental health concerns and 73% believe that staff would refer their child to mental health services if needed.
Almost half (45%) of parents think they should discuss mental health more with their children. Three-fourths of parents (77%) would be comfortable referring their child to mental health services if they noticed a concerning behavior change.
Recently, the APA Foundation implemented a free training program for K-12 school staff called Notice. Talk. Act.® at School. The curriculum, currently funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, educates school staff on the signals of a potential mental health concern and equips them with the confidence to discuss mental health with children and connect them to appropriate resources.
For more information, see the Psychiatric News article “Popular APA Foundation Program Becomes Notice. Talk. Act. at School.”
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