Notes

A.)MENTAL HEALTH

INTRODUCTION-Adolescence (10 to 19 years) is a crucial period of human life as adolescent students are pressured to learn and develop themselves physically, emotionally, socially, and educationally [1]. Mental health problems can significantly impact students’ academic performance, career, health, and future if not identified and managed in time [2–5]. Stress and depression in adolescence were found to be associated with somatic ailments such as metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases, as well as greater welfare dependence, unemployment, and academic failure [3, 6, 7]. Furthermore, inappropriate handling or the inability to cope with stress can lead to depression, anxiety, suicide attempts, substance abuse, self-injury, and antisocial behaviour among adolescents [7].

BODY PARAGRAPHS-According to WHO, there is no single 'official' definition of mental health. Mental health refers to a person's psychological, emotional, and social well-being; it influences what they feel and how they think, and behave. The state of cognitive and behavioural well-being is referred to as mental health. The term 'mental health' is also used to refer to the absence of mental disease.

CONCLUSION-Every four years, the US National Intelligence Council (NIC), known for its ties to the Central Intelligence Agency, releases a report outlining the main changes to be expected in the world in the next two decades. Following this tradition, after the election of Joe Biden, a new report was published in March 2021: Global Trends 2040. It includes a short mention of mental health.

Three causes are evoked for the rising prevalence of mental disorders: population growth, probably because it induces an increase of the absolute number of people living with mental illness, adolescent suffering and COVID-19. Most, if not all policy documents we could find approach mental health as a growing, costly problem for which few responses exist except recruiting more specialized professionals, making mental health services more ‘effective’ and ‘accessible’, and, tacitly, responsibilizing populations to manage their own distress – with increased focus on building ‘resilience’ and promoting ‘recovery’ (Harper and Speed, 2014). ‘Evidence-based’ policies then evaluate the ‘efficiency’ of these programmes and keep the most cost-effective ones, ignoring that beyond the help and relief these services certainly offer for many people suffering from mental disorders and their relatives, at a societal level, diagnosed mental disorders keep rising everywhere, no matter how cost-effective such services are.