Running head: COMBATING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

Combating mental health issues collectivelyThe Youth as part of the solution.

Nikki Rapp, Natalia Kellamis, Jamie Ross, Li Cui, & Jacob Scott
Miami University

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Abstract
Our team recognizes that mental health issues have become a national problem in the US.
Through an integrated curriculum, we intend to develop students awareness and understanding
of the impact of mental health issues on our society. As informed citizens, the youth are
challenged to actively engage in fighting and destigmatizing mental illness for a healthy society.

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Description:
The overarching theme of the curriculum across disciplines is mental health in the
community. Community will be defined differently in each discipline and for each purpose. For
example, the Chinese classroom would define community in the context of China while the
interdisciplinary final project allows each group of students to define community themselves, so
they can choose to make a difference where they perceive their community needs it.
In the Social Studies classroom, the focus will be on the history of and public policy
surrounding mental health. Mental health is a cornerstone to the success of education. There is a
great deal of history and public policy which shapes this topic. Historically, those with mental
health disorders have been oppressed and forgotten, even shunned from society. Public policy
took a large shift in the 1970s and has continued to help those with mental health disorders. This
topic remains important and perennial as mass shootings, stigmatization, and access to proper
health care continue to play large roles in our daily news feeds.
The curriculum for our psychology class will consist primarily of learning to distinguish
between mental disorders. My goal is to teach students an introductory course in psychology
through an exploration of five different categories of mental illness. Each week a specific
category will be our focus; the five categories will consist of anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder,
depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse and addiction. Within each category of disorders,
we will explore a definition of each disorder, symptoms of that disorder, as well as possible
treatments and what it looks like to live with said disorder.
For the Chinese curriculum, the main focus is to help the students understand the
situation of mental health issues in global scale. In this particular example, the situation of

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mental health issues in China and the two main reasons that lead to the fact that mental health
problems do not get enough attention by Chinese people will be introduced. For the first part,
several statistics will be given to show the severe current situation of mental health issues in
schools in China. Then, two main reasons (lack of counselor and law) will be given to explain in
detail why mental health problems do not get enough attention by Chinese people. Students will
be identifying the way the mental health issues affect students and thinking about how to
improve mental health issues in China.
For the English curriculum, students will be focusing on representation of mental illness
in literature, and the stigma surrounding it. Students will be reading various examples of mental
health in literature, including Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar. The goal is for students to think
critically about how society stigmatizes mental illness and how it is portrayed in pop culture and
literature. Students will keep a journal throughout the unit, which they will write in two to three
times a week, culminating in a final essay that can be either fiction or nonfiction. To go along
with this essay, students will compose an accompanying text of a different medium, such as a
painting, song, or poem that they can present in the final, school-wide project.
In Chemistry, the students will be focusing on the concept of chemical reactions. The
beginning of the curriculum will employ guided inquiry to introduce the types of chemical
reactions. Students will explore these reactions at multiple levels, including macroscopic reaction
demos, symbolic representations in the form of chemical equations, and particulate models of the
reaction mechanism. Once students pass the basics of chemical reactions, they will be introduced
to examples of the common reaction types from brain chemistry and common medications used
to treat mental illnesses. The unit will culminate in a literature review to get students used to the

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format and style of real research papers. These papers will be provided to ensure the language
and content of the paper can be understood by the students.
Rationale:
As a faculty, we have chosen to frame our curriculum around mental health issues in
order to educate our students on the existence of mental illness as well as the signs, symptoms,
and treatments of different conditions. We have settled on this topic for our curriculum due to its
relevancy in our students lives both in and out of school, as well as the ability of mental health
education to aid in the reduction of the negative stigma associated with mental illness in the
United States.
Relevancy to student life. As educators, we recognize the issues present in the lives of
our students both in and out of school. Despite a lack of public attention, mental illness and other
mental health issues present an ever-growing challenge to todays youth. Depression and
anxiety are highly prevalent mental disorders with estimates indicating they affect up to almost
one fifth of the population[and] prevalence of mental disorders is greatest among younger
people aged 16-24 years (Christensen, Griffiths, Gulliver 2010). With estimates such as these,
educators are almost guaranteed to see students with a mental illness in their classroom; likewise,
students are almost guaranteed to come face to face with mental illness in their own lives,
whether it be their own or that of a friend, family member, or peer.
Due to the myriad of stressors present in todays high schools, students are particularly
prone to mental illness. Although mental health is thought to be somewhat influenced by
genetics, environmental factors can play a key role in the development of a mental illness.
Environmental factors such as stress in particular can exacerbate a mental illness (Weir 2012).

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Because of the environments present in our schools, it is imperative that we address with our
students the potential consequences of prolonged, intense stress.
Stigma reduction. As educators, we feel it must be our role to support social justice
efforts wherever possible. Therefore, we must assist in the reduction of the negative stigma
associated with mental illness. Because of the negative stigma surrounding mental health issues,
many students in need of help do not seek assistance. By educating students on the realities of
mental illness, we hope to break down the current stigma those with mental illnesses experience
in order to create a healthier school environment for our students. In a study done in 2014, it was
found that even a brief education on mental illness issues significantly reduced stigma towards
those with mental illnesses (Martin, Phalen, & Warman 2015). Stigma towards mental illness can
develop early in childhood; from age five, children develop the cognitive ability to
conceptualize difference more subtly than good in-groups and bad out-groups, whilst
simultaneously

learning

social

desirability

rules

that

constrain

endorsement

of

prejudices...children will demonstrate mental illness stigma.at around age seven, because
identification, conceptualization, and attribution about unseen mental illness and latent
outgroups requires...advanced cognitive development (Callanan, Greenwood & Mueller 2015).
Because of the ability of our youth to develop ill attitudes towards mental illness early in life, it
is immensely important to work to break down stigma as early and often as possible. We hope
that because our program will take place in high school, our students will have the mental
capacity to understand the multiple dimensions of mental illness and mental health, giving them
an opportunity to break down stigma in their communities.
Curriculum in Practice:

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An example of our curriculum in action can best be seen through our culminating final
project. These projects, created and executed by student groups (groups of 4-5), will reflect the
knowledge gleaned from the content areas we represent. From psychology, government, and
history to chemistry, English and Chinese, students will learn how and why mental illness is
pertinent to the school district, community and global society.
Student groups will synthesize the information learned in each subject to create a
presentation about a specific mental health disorder/illness and a sector of the population which
it is affecting. This project will pull together what the students have learned in all of the above
subjects and will devise a strategy to improve the school district or local community to help
people who have these mental health disorders. These presentations will be conducted over the
course of two weeks, at the end of which groups will present their findings to their teachers as
well as the community.
Through collaboration, students will first identify a mental illness and a group or sector
of people it affects. Second, students will use their new knowledge to devise a plan of action to
address the problem they have identified and ultimately improve the lives of the affected
population. Over a period of two weeks, students will use time in and out of class to put together
a final product showcasing their issue, research, and proposed solution or adaptation. Each group
will present a tri-fold or a poster as a final product, but additionally each group will produce a
creative component as well. Students will be encouraged to use technology to create an
illustration, video, photo, advertisement, or other creative component pertinent to their
presentation. At the end of the six-week-long curriculum, the school gymnasium will be set aside
for two days of presentations. Tables will be set up inside the gym and each group will set up
their presentation at their table. On the first day of presentations, students will rehearse their

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presentations as teachers circulate through the gym; each project will be watched and given
feedback by at least one teacher. The following day, the community will be invited to the school
to observe the students presentations. Students will be encouraged to invite their families,
friends, and the organizations they are involved with outside of school. Teachers will also work
to invite professionals from the community. Students will present to community members and
field questions and concerns from their audiences.
This culminating project exemplifies our curriculum by integrating everything students
have learned and having them utilize technology and their creative talents to interact with and
improve their community. This project is active, engaging, and innovative in a variety of ways.
In order to identify a problem in the community for those with mental illness, students will need
to draw on all their previous classes. Foundational knowledge from their chemistry and
psychology classes will inform them of what the different classifications of mental illnesses are
and how they affect the body and brain. Knowledge of the history of mental illness, especially
within legislation, will give students an idea of the struggles those with mental illness have
already experienced and how current law protects and aids them. Additionally, knowledge of
mental illness within culture and society will be learned through an examination of literature as
well as an in-depth study of mental illness within China. With these multiple perspectives,
students will be able to identify a real-world problem that interests them.
Assessment:
There are two primary forms of assessment in this curriculum. The first is an informal
journal assignment where students chronicle their experience during the unit and the final

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project. The second assessment concerns the final project. Both of these assessments are open as
to allow students to show their knowledge of the topic in a way that matches their strengths.
The informal journal assignment is assigned and completed in the English classroom. For the
first at least 4 weeks of the curriculum, the journal will be used as a place for reflective writing
about the readings used in the English class and their ties to the information in other classes.
Students will work on these journals two to three times a week over the six weeks. During the
last two weeks, the journals will also be used as a reflection on the project, whether it concerns
group dynamics, research brainstorming, or other project-related writings.
The final project will be introduced to the students during the fifth week of the
curriculum. The project is explained in much more detail in the Example section of the paper.
The assessment of the project is split into two portions. The first portion of the assessment is the
formal teacher evaluation of the student projects. This evaluation is focused on whether or not
students met all requirements for the project as it is set out by each teacher. This will include the
final poster as well as the creative component explained in the Example section. At least two
teachers will evaluate each project on Thursday morning of week six. The final score of the
project will not be reported until after the final week of the unit, however feedback will be given
immediately so students can improve the project Thursday afternoon before the community
presentation.
The second portion of the project assessment will come during the community
presentation on Friday. Community members will be given feedback forms for the projects to be
filled out if they feel compelled to. In addition, they will be asked to sign petitions in support of

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the cause each student group has presented. These petition signatures and feedback forms will
be considered in the final score of each project.

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Bibliography
Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M., & Christensen, H. (2010). Perceived barriers and facilitators to
mental health help-seeking in young people: A systematic review. BMC Psychiatry,
10(1). doi:10.1186/1471-244x-10-113
Mueller, J., Callanan, M. M., & Greenwood, K. (2016). Communications to children about
mental illness and their role in stigma development: an integrative review. Journal of
Mental Health, 25(1), 62-70.
Warman, D. M., Phalen, P. L., & Martin, J. M. (2015). Impact of a brief education about mental
illness on stigma of OCD and violent thoughts. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and
Related Disorders, 5, 16-23. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2015.01.003
Weir, K. (2012, February). The beginnings of mental illness. Retrieved November 26, 2016, from
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/02/mental-illness.aspx