Mental Health
America should mandate that all public schools hire a child psychologist to evaluate children in grade Kindergarten, 4th, 8th, and 12th. This will help prevent mental illnesses from worsening and possibly even start in the first place.
October 7, 2016
Dear Future President,
As children age, the number of children with mental problems rise as more they become more affected by their environment. All the struggling children eventually turn into struggling adults, who may find it more difficult to join the workforce and rely on government programs that cost the taxpayers money, just to live happily. This is why we should help the mentally ill in the beginning to avoid these consequences.
In the article “Mental Illness Widespread, Spread Says 12 of U.S Teens Suffer From Effects,” James F. Leckman, professor of child psychiatry and pediatrics at Yale University, told New York Times “7.5 million children manifest a diverse set of conditions that include developmental impairments which limit a child’s ability to think and learn, to form social attachments or to communicate effectively with others”. If schools knew the mental condition of their students earlier in their lives, their parents and teachers may be able to help the child with the problem before it worsens. This could make any problems a child may have in the future because of this problem, less significant and better able to handle. In addition, to the help of the child, with the results researchers could gain from this information they may be able to learn more about certain mental disorders. After some years of using this method, researchers may be able to find any possible environmental causes of mental illnesses to eliminate many problems before they show up.
Federal law should mandate that all public schools hire a child psychologist to evaluate children in grade Kindergarten, 4th, 8th, and 12th. The purpose of the chosen grades helps evaluate each child at important educational transitions equal length apart. With the data collected, researchers can not only provide helpful information to the families of each child, but also use that data to find patterns and detect possible links to conditions caused by a student's environment. Thank you for taking time to read this proposal.
Sincerely,
Angela