Persuasive Essay Rough Draft

Mental health awareness in schools is a crucial component of creating a supportive and nurturing educational environment that values not only the well-being of students, but empowers them to thrive academically, physically, emotionally, and socially. Mental health is often overlooked and not taken seriously, especially in school age children due to the lack of awareness in schools and the stigma around it. Mental health awareness is not only important in schools for the students themselves to be able to ask for help, but for them to be able to identify when another student may need help as well. Incorporating mental health awareness into school curriculums can help break down barriers to seeking treatment and promote a culture of support and understanding.

Mental health awareness diminishes the stigma around it, so students then feel comfortable asking for help when needed. When students are able to ask for help from either their peers, or professionals, they can receive intervention early on. Early intervention for mental health issues in students allows for better engagement and learning in school. Mental health issues in school aged children, especially depression, can cause academic performance issues in school, and can even lead to isolation from their peers (Arnold & Baker, 2018). When students are isolated from their peers, their mental health suffers.

The stigma around mental health issues prevent adolescents from seeking help, therefore causing their issues to progressively worsen due to being untreated, or undiagnosed as a whole. These issues make it hard to focus while in school and therefore cause students to fall behind academically due to disengagement. Students that fall behind in school can become increasingly isolated and even bullied, which worsens their mental health. Schools are not adequately preparing students to ask for help or recognize when they need it. Many students are just seen as "lazy" or as delinquents, when their issues could stem from their mental health.

Mental health can directly affect physical health as well. When a student's mental health suffers, there are chances their physical health suffers as well. Students with mental health issues can become isolated and have increased risk of developing an eating disorder, which can escalate mental health disorders. As well as eating disorders, other physical issues can arise with mental health issues as well. According to the CDC, students with mental health issues often experience other health issues including drug usage, violence, and risky sexual behaviors that lead to STD/STI, and unintended pregnancies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Mental and physical health goes hand in hand with each other. People with physical health problems may develop mental health issues and vice versa as well.

People with mental health diagnoses, such as depression, can increase the risk of conditioned such a stroke or heart disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023). This not only goes to show how important physical health is, but how imperative mental health is to our physical health. Schools push the importance of physical health very strongly, and it's time they push the importance of mental health just as strongly. Students deserve to be in overall good health and need to be adequately informed on how to ask for help when needed.

Mental health issues directly correlate with suicide rated, According to the World Health Organization, "An unacceptable 70 per cent of young people with mental health problems are not offered intervention (McDougall, 2011), with potentially serious implications - suicide is the third most common cause of death in adolescents (WHO, 2014; Auerbach et al., 2015; Avenevoli et al., 2015; Bauman et al., 2013)." (Arnold & Baker, 2018). Suicide. The third cause of death in adolescents. As disheartening as those statistics are, it only makes sense with such high stigmas around mental health. Mental health awareness needs to be a more brought up subject for our youth. Students need to feel comfortable asking for help and killing the stigma around mental health.

According to the CDC, "In 2021, more than 1 in 5 (22%) students seriously considered attempting suicide and 1 in 10 (10%) attempted suicide." The suicide rates in our youth are insane and awareness needs to be brought into schools more often. Students should feel comfortable coming to an adult for help, including their teachers and other school staff. Our adolescents are the leaders of our future, and to see how their mental health is ignored and the stereotypes continue is not only frustrating, but something that is preventable. Mental health shouldn't be ignored, awareness should be everywhere, especially in schools, where our adolescents spend most of their days.

Mental health issues have always been a very touchy subject although people of all ages suffer from mental health issues whether they are diagnosed, or not, including children. Lack of mental health awareness strengths the stereotypes and stigma around mental health issues. These stigmas around mental health make it harder for students to reach out for help when they are struggling as well as recognize when their peers are in need of help. A student's mental health not only affects their academic abilities, but their physical health as well, and only causes suicide rates to continue to increase. Mental health needs to be recognized as a serious issue and the stigma needs to be completely abolished.

Please answer the following questions;

How does the author engage readers in the introduction? In other words, how do they hook their readers?

Find the thesis of the paper: how might the author make this more vivid? How could the author get the reader to more strongly identify with the thesis? How does the author connect with you, the reader?

Did it feel like there were any gaps in the narrative, or important details were missing? If so, how might the author address these issues in a revised draft?

Find the meaning: How does the author indicate the importance of the issue? Is this reason clear and compelling?

How does the author discuss the context of the issue?

What suggestions and/or questions do you have?

Do you see obvious APA errors?

Are there obvious spelling, grammar, or mechanical errors?

What was your favorite part of the essay? Please be specific in this resp