LETTERS: What do you say when students tell you that they have suicidal thoughts? Or that they are on anti-depressants having been clinically diagnosed with anxiety disorder?
Ten years ago, as educators, we had to only face issues such as truancy, lack of motivation and plagiarism.
Today, students openly address their mental health issues. They want you to know that they are overwhelmed, sad, stressed, potentially self-harming and depressed.
Today's youth are called the "strawberry generation", a term loosely taken from a Chinese-neologism that originated from Taiwan, which means "bruise easily".
If we deem these students as unable to withstand pressure and compare them with "how it used to be", would this solve the issue?
Hence, educators today have another role to play. However, most of them are not professionally prepared to deal with students' mental health issues.
Educational psychology from the past covered issues relating to classroom interactions. It didn't emphasise on mental health disorders.
On top of that, educators also struggle with their own mental wellbeing. Educators cannot walk into a class wearing their heart on their sleeve.
More often than not, we suppress our troubled minds to ensure effective teaching and learning sessions.
Imagine having burnt-out educators teaching a class in which most of them are highly stressed, like ticking bombs.
One wrong choice of words or action can stir up negative emotions.
Of course, there are counsellors for educators and students at schools and colleges, but the social stigma that comes with mental health treatment is hard to erase.
Instead of seeking professional help, many resort to other potentially harmful methods, particularly self-diagnosis.
In fact, it is a growing trend among the younger generation to refer to user-generated content on TikTok to identify mental illness.
Young people find themselves gravitating to mental health influencers who share videos of their so-called symptoms.
While these videos create greater awareness of mental illness, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, dissociative identity disorder and even autism, the excessive amount of misinformation may cause young people to believe they have a disorder when they may not.
Hence, it is timely for educational institutions to train educators about managing mental health issues for themselves and their students.
They must not be left to navigate mental health care themselves.
The first thing educational institutions should do is to encourage educators and students to take the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale test prepared by the Health Ministry to identify symptoms of mental illness.
Test results are not diagnosis but rather indicators that one needs professional help.
Next, educators must be trained to address warning signs and risk factors that can occur among students in classrooms.
With training, educators can provide initial assistance to those developing mental health problems.
While conversations about mental health might be critical, educators cannot participate in this discourse without knowledge of the matter.
Indeed, developing the right emotional bandwidth for a conducive learning environment that is psychologically safe requires input from the right sources.
Educators do wear many hats but this one hat must be measured and prepared to ensure that they can promote mindfulness and self-care in classrooms.
ZARLINA MOHD ZAMARI
Senior lecturer,
Academy of Language Studies,
Universiti Teknologi Mara, Perak
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times