TEACHERS’ AWARENESS OF STUDENT’S MENTAL HEALTH; IMPLICATION FOR CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

Teachers have a unique and strategic opportunity to detect behavioral changes in students that could be the first presenting signs of mental disorders. They also have an education and skill set that can be the foundation for recognizing and responding to youth with a mental illness, behavioral problem, or major social stressor that is adversely impacting their functioning at school thereby maximizing their optimal development. Thus the attitude of teachers toward mental health problems and their knowledge and skill set to help students with mental health problems becomes an important step in further enhancing their role as facilitators of student mental health. The awareness among teachers about mental health problems like depression and how to correctly identify the symptoms in students, thus becomes important for the students in receiving timely help as well as impact positively on curriculum implementation process. This paper, theoretically analyzed the implication of teachers’ awareness of students’ mental health on curriculum implementation. The paper concludes that the awareness among teachers about mental health problems like depression and how to correctly identify the symptoms in students, thus becomes important for the students in receiving timely help as well as impact positively on curriculum implementation process. It further recommend that teachers and students should be provided with ways to recognize early signs of developing mental health problems, and there should be opportunities around the awareness and management of mental health crises, including the risk of suicide or self-harm.