Silent Killer Research Papers

The Silent Killer
According to the National Alliance On Mental Health, one in five youth live with a mental health condition. Schools have staff on hand to offer help to students who do suffer from mental illness, but a lot of the time it’s not enough. Not having adequate mental health programs leaves students feeling even more overwhelmed and stressed. Schools need to set up a more thorough and rigid outline of how to deal with students struggling. I know that every child is different and every situation is different but to have a general plan could be very helpful to a family going through that.
Since ninth grade, I’ve been struggling with mental illness and I often saw at my school the lack of trained professionals to help and significant amount of the staff didn’t know how to handle it. I’d have panic attacks in the middle of class, in the middle of the hallway, anytime, anywhere and
teachers would have no idea what to do and I had no idea what to do. Often I would get sent to the nurse’s office but she didn't seem to know what to do either, most the time she would just tell me to lay down a bit and go back to class which may have let me get control of myself but she didn’t offer any long term help. The school nurse a lot of the time thought I was being dramatic and just wanted to get out of going to class or going to school. I started getting sent home almost daily which caused extra stress on my parents because they were constantly missing work and they had a child they had no idea what to do with who was miserable. After a month or two of this going on I just stopped going to school, I hated it and I was so behind on my work and teachers were always on my case about missing class and work. My grades dropped which made my ambition drop even further. I was seeing a counselor every other week and I had a treatment plan through them but I think it would have been very helpful if my counselor and the school had worked together to put together a specialized program just for me.
Now that I am in college, we have the counseling center and the Center for Academic Success which offer support for students in need.
I haven’t taken full advantage of these recourses yet but I’d like to. Making more information readily available about the help students like me can receive through the school would make it more likely for students to get the help. The only information about the Center for Academic Success you can find on the Alfred website is saying, it “provides support services, consultation, and advocacy for students with learning, physical, and/or psychological disabilities. Services for persons with disabilities complement and support, but do not duplicate, the University's existing services and programs.” It also says that if you fill out the registration for the center you: Receive appropriate accommodations, have an academic consultant, and learn self-advocacy skills. That's all the school’s website says about it, I wish it would discuss who exactly is eligible for their services and more in depth information on what their services exactly
entail.
I’m very grateful for the help I received in high school from my principle and the opportunities I now have on Alfred’s campus available to me. In this difficult time it would make things a bit easier on me and students like me to receive the help I need if more information was easily accessible.