Missing Support: Students, Psychologists Say Existing Mental Health Resources Aren't Enough

Over the past two years, a new light has shed on mental health issues and students.

Even before the pandemic, mental health issues impacted students all over the globe. But over the past two years, a new light has shed on these problems. A discussion panel of students and psychologists contributed their thoughts in a Chalkbeat virtual event. Students highlighted the loneliness they felt while being alone at home, and increasing mental health problems. Furthermore, they sometimes couldn’t get the help they needed due to shortages in staff. However, from the psychologists’ point of view, it wasn’t that schools didn’t want to help; they were similarly overwhelmed with students who needed support. Spending “80 to 90 percent” of their time solely on responding to struggling students, they also want the capacity to be do “some of the proactive work.” Students wrapped up the discussion by expressing their hopes for schools in the future, such as conversations about vulnerability and feeling “listened to” at school.