How Mental Health Literature can be effective in education

By Ellie Thurston

Mental Health is still considered a taboo subject this day and age, which is a very worrying thing due to the fact that '1 in 4 people experience mental health issues each year (1)' but more importantly 'according to a national survey, about 50% of youth between the ages of 13-18 experiences a mental health disorder at some point in their life'. Which raises the question, if one in four people experience mental health issues yearly why isn't it spoken about more? Or more importantly why is it not learnt more in education? 

Education is key in helping spread awareness about mental health issues, one of the ways it can be achieved is to sit the children down and speak to them for an allocated period of time about what mental health is and what they can do to prevent or help those who are suffering. However, in order to make the situation less formal and learned about in an interesting and creative way, institutions could use novels as a way to talk about the topic without actually having to make it so serious.

Mental Health novels are increasing in popularity and can be used in such a positive way in education:

Including novels in the English syllabus that include characters with mental illness can help pre-service teachers consider their own textual choices in the English classroom and to empathize with those students who are living with mental illness or whose family members or friends are dealing with psychological disorders'. Reading books about mental illness can motivate students and teachers to be aware of the power of language choices and to become empowered to confront the stigma associated with mental illness and confront bullying of those struggling with depression, anxiety, and others living with mental illness. 

This emphasises how important and positive these types of elements in education can have on students. As someone that has experienced mental health issues themselves, I think it would have been very educational on seeing the different types of mental health disorders through characters and being able to identify yourself with them, which could then lead to more discussions on the topic. This is not to say that mental health literature is not incorporated into education at all as I think it is clear that a lot of the classics has themes of mental illness such as John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1937) and classic Shakespeare plays like Macbeth (1623) however, I think it is presented in such an extreme way that as an individual it is hard to associate yourself or fin d similarities with a character that is seen as the antagonist.

Although popularity for these type of novels has sky rocketed, it still walks hand in hand with controversy which can have negative associations with including mental health literature in education. As young students are very impressionable and if they read a particular book and resonate with a character they may automatically assume that they are suffering with the same afflictions as the character. This can lead to dangerous territory as young individuals may start to self diagnose rather than seeing a professional, which is not a positive thing as it is always best to seek help or conformation from a professional. 

Other controversy that surrounds mental health in education is discrimination. The main focus surrounding discrimination against those who come forward and especially in schools if a pupil were to ask questions and seem to engage with the topic it might cause other pupils to be unkind or discriminate that pupil as they might assume that they are mentally ill. Research by 'Peterson, Pere et al. 2004 suggest that discrimination against people with experience of mental illness is an issue no matter what ethnic or cultural group the person identifies with'. This unfortunately is common and it is essentially particularly if mental health is going to be discussed in education that discrimination is not acceptable and that it is a serious topic but in terms of literature they are discussing the characters only, that way they can reduce any assumption that any of the pupils are suffering from mental health issues. However, that does not mean that it should be pushed aside, as teachers should always be approachable and if any student wants to talk further about the characters or topic they should be able too.

It is clear that mental health literature could have a positive influence in education and is something that I strongly stand behind. I think its important to take into consideration both the positive and negative affects of having mental health literature in education. But due to the rise in how may individuals worldwide are recorded to have mental health issues, it is crucial that it is discussed at a young age so that students are aware and know most important that it is ok to talk about. No one should suffer in silence and literature is a way to escape your own reality and live someone else's, but in this case it can enlighten some individuals to why they are feeling a certain way and starts the discussion an make the phrase mental health a less taboo subject.