 "Can mental health days for students bring down suicide rates? Taiwan thinks so")
What happens if a child in the family is down with a bad cold or flu? You probably won’t send them to school and tend to them. But what happens when they are feeling anxious or low? You ask them to chin up and carry on with their routine. But Taiwan plans to change that. They are introducing mental health leave for students.
What is Taiwan’s mental health leave for students?
High schools in Taiwan will be offering leave to students to address any mental health issues they might be facing. It’s a trial run and more than 40 schools in the self-governing territory have signed up for it this month, according to the ministry of education.
Under the programme, high school students can apply for up to three days off every semester. They can take half days or full days without having to show any proof or note from a doctor but with permission from parents, according to a report in the Guardian.
The trial allowing a mental health day off is being conducted to address the rising cases of youth suicides, high stress levels and depression among students.
Some universities and schools in Taiwan have been giving students mental health days already. It was first initiated by Kaohsiung-based National Sun Yat-sen University in 2022. The institute does have a limit on how many times an individual can take this leave but if a student takes more than three leaves in a semester, a school counsellor steps in, according to a report in Taipei Times.
Last year, National Taiwan University (NTU) and six other schools implemented such a leave for students. This increased the number to 18 schools, 12 per cent of universities in Taiwan, the education ministry said last September. Around 29,582 students took mental health leave in the fall and spring semesters of the previous year, said Wu Lin-hui, director of the department of student affairs and special education in the ministry.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTaiwan Youth Association for Democracy director Alvin Chang was quoted as saying by Taipei Times that the programme provided good support for students and the limits on leaves can prevent the practice from being abused.
How prevalent are mental health issues among students in Taiwan?
The leave scheme in schools and universities is seen as a response to the rise in suicide and other mental issues in Taiwan.
Suicides in Taiwan hit a three-year high of 3,787 in 2022, according to figures released by the ministry of health and welfare last year. Between 2014 and 2022, the suicide rate among people aged 15 to 24 more than doubled.
A survey of students conducted by the Child Welfare League Foundation found that more than 12 per cent reported “severe” levels of stress. Senior high school students experienced more stress than juniors. Almost a quarter of high school students said that they suffered from severe depression.
The top three reasons for stress were schoolwork (77 per cent), future prospects (67 per cent) and interpersonal relationships (43 per cent), the Guardian reports.
Also read: Put that Mobile Down: How using smartphones as kids can cause mental health issues
Will the mental health leave help students?
According to Hsiao Chih-hsien, a psychologist at the National Sun Yat-sen University counselling and health unit, the leave days were a good step in the right direction.
“Mental health leave has a certain degree of effectiveness. It allows students to relieve the urgent stresses of the moment and have sufficient buffer rest time to digest and cope with their discomfort,” Hsiao was quoted as saying by the Guardian. He said that the initiative could help improve societal attitudes toward mental illness. “If mental discomfort is seen in a normalised manner, students will be more courageous in seeking help.”
A student of NTU College of Law and Politics told the Taipei Times that he applied for mental health leave when he was feeling down and it helped him feel better.
Another student, who suffered from insomnia, said that the leave helped him sort out his sleeping problem.
However, it is not the youth in Taiwan alone who struggle with mental health. The problem is universal.
Also read: What are the new rules for coaching centres in India? Will it curb student suicides?
How many students have poor mental health worldwide?
Adolescents across the globe face the burden of mental health. Globally, one in seven 10 to 19-year-olds experience a mental disorder, accounting for 13 per cent of the global burden of disease in this age group, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders are among the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 15 to 29-year-olds.
In 2019, an estimated 166 million adolescents (89 million boys and 77 million girls) globally experienced mental health disorders. The pandemic worsened it.
In the US, some 40 per cent of college students struggled with anxiety, 45 per cent with depression and 16 per cent with suicidal thoughts, according to a survey conducted in 2021 by the Healthy Minds Network.
The number of young people between the ages of 12 and 25 receiving antidepressants was already growing before the pandemic. But since the COVID-19 outbreak in the US in March 2020, the dispensing rate has risen by nearly 64 per cent faster than normal, according to a recent study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, reports CNN.
According to Mental Health America, a leading non-profit, when it comes to leaves related to mental health, schools in the country have different policies and procedures depending on the circumstances. They can be considered leaves of absence, medical leaves of absence, emergency leaves, or, in some cases, involuntary leaves of absence.
However, there is no specific provision for mental health leave. But schools and universities have counsellors, advisers or other professionals on campus to handle such matters.
Also read: 60 per cent of US teen girls are 'persistently sad': What's ailing them?
In the UK and Europe, while there are helplines and support on campus, there is no provision for a specific mental health leave.
Taiwan could then be setting an example for the world with its ‘mental health leave for students’ programme.
With inputs from agencies
(A collection of Suicide prevention helpline numbers is available here. Please reach out if you or anyone you know needs support. The All-India helpline number is 022-27546669)
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