Greater resources and support are needed for schools and parents of students with mental health issues, said President Halimah Yacob.
Mdm Halimah made her statement in the aftermath of the recent alleged murder of a 13-year-old student by a 16-year-old student in River Valley High School (RVHS).
In her Facebook post on Friday (23 July), she said that while the loss of the 13-year-old must have been indescribable for his parents, “who had lovingly nurtured this child only to so suddenly have him snatched”, one could not avoid “feeling sorry for the 16-year-old and his family too”, given his mental health struggles.
“It was recently revealed in court when he was charged that he had a prior episode of mental breakdown two years ago when he was referred to IMH because of a suicide attempt. And we know that the impact of mental illness when the onset is at a very young age is usually a lot more severe than someone who gets it much later in life,” said Mdm Halimah.
“Attempted suicides are a real cry for help. We don’t know the full details particularly whether he had continued to receive psychiatric help or medication in order to deal with his mental health after that episode. We also don’t know whether it was due to school or there are other factors affecting him as the causes of mental breakdowns are numerous and sometimes there is more than one factor at play,” she added.
What is clear, however, is that parents, schools and our society “are ill-equipped to deal with this situation”, said Mdm Halimah.
“For parents, the great difficulty is not knowing whether the child is perhaps going through a growth phase as all adolescents with growth hormones raging through their bodies sometimes act out, or is it because of something much deeper.
“For teachers, already overloaded with work, it’s not possible to delve deeply into the issues affecting one child which will require close monitoring, observation and engagement. There’s a school counsellor but the person may not be well trained on issues affecting mental health,” she said.
Expectations from society towards students of “a linear progression” in their academic and overall school performance, said Mdm Halimah, may also contribute to the mental health problems of young people.
“Parents compare all the time. We often say that a well developed, healthy child is better than a troubled child who seems to be shooting all As but is suffering, but we actually send different signals to them,” she said.
Coupled with such pressure, the “terrible stigma” attached to mental health stemming from “ignorance, stereotype and prejudice in our society” has likely deterred parents from helping their children seek treatment, which will and has resulted in “disastrous consequences”, said Mdm Halimah.
Thus, schools need to be equipped with “a lot more resources and support” to assist students with mental health issues, she said.
“One way is for them to partner with social service agencies dealing with mental wellness, who could help to run programmes educating students on mental well-being.
“Some institutes of higher learning have also embedded programmes on mental health to support their students and are quite effective, which they can share with schools.
“We could also study the experience of other countries with more developed systems of support for our reference,” Mdm Halimah outlined.
She also questioned if there are programmes to ease parents’ efforts to help children with mental health issues remain “meaningfully engaged” during their time off from school if they need such time away, and not just subject the students solely to “psychiatric treatment or medication”.
“It takes a tragedy like this to start us thinking deeply again about the mental health of our young. Most of our children can cope, are resilient and will grow up well. But not all children are the same. Some do need more help and not just from the school but from everyone,” said Mdm Halimah.
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