Mental Health

World Health Organization defines "mental health" as "a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. It is an integral part component of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, build relationships and shape the world we live in."_1.

Table of Contents

1. Youth Empowerment

1.1 Elements of Empowerment

1.2 Goals of Empowerment

2. Programs to Empower

2.1 School Programs

2.2 Community Programs

3. Teen Mental Health

3.1 Warning signs

4. Places and Services

5. Effects

5.1 What's being done

Youth Empowerment

Edupadi opens with this statement: "Youth empowerment refers to the process of giving young people the tools, resources, and opportunities they need to take control of their lives and shape their futures. This includes providing education, support, and access to resources and decision-making power so that young people can actively participate in creating a better future for themselves and their communities. Empowerment of youth can lead to a reduction in poverty, an increase in economic growth, and a stronger society."₆

YWCA helping kids in Normal, IL.

Elements of Empowerment

Youth empowerment has many different ways to go about this. According to Wikipedia the most common ways tend to be one of these six:

Psychological- enhances individual's consciousness, belief in self-efficacy, awareness and knowledge of problems and solutions and of how individuals can address problems that harm their quality of life.
Community- enhancing the community through leadership development, improving communication, and creating a network of support to mobilize the community to address concerns.
Organizational- create a base of resources for a community, including voluntary organizations, unions and associations that aim to protect, promote and advocate for the powerless.
Economic- teaches entrepreneurial skills, how to take ownership of their assets and how to have income security.
Social- teaches youth about social inclusion and literacy as well as helping kids find the resources to be proactive in their communities.
Cultural- aims to recreate cultural practices and redefine cultural rules and norms for youth.

Goals of Empowerment

The goals of youth empowerment are to create programs that help make healthier and higher qualities of life for underprivileged or at-risk youth. The five stages of a healthy youth should be:

A positive sense of ones self
Self-Control
Good Decision Making Skills
Moral Beliefs
Social Connectedness

Programs of Empowerment (Community and School based)

School programs

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., is an education program that seeks to prevent use of controlled drugs, membership in gangs, and violent behavior by getting to the kids before they get exposed to this.₂

Community Programs

Project Oz is foundation that helps young people build a foundation to promote safety, well-being and opportunities. ₃
Boys and Girls Club is a club with mission of "To empower all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring responsible citizens."₄
YMCA or Young Men's Christian Association is an association with the goals of nurturing the potential of kids, improving their health and well-being, giving back and supporting your neighbors.₅

Mental health on Teens

When discussing Mental Health as a subject, society tends to accept women's mental health more than men's. We have always heard about mental health aiming for women, but that is the problem. We don’t know men are suffering as well until it is too late. Men statistically suffer in silence four times more than women do. We see these young teens being the cause of school shootings, declaring mental illness but never see the signs until they are shooting and crying for help.

Definition

According to https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health Mental Health includes our emotional, Psychological, and social well-being, it affects how we think, feel, and act, and helps how we determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices.

Causes on mental health

Mental Health is bigger than it is set to believe as well and it’s an illness that causes disorders and bigger health issues. Many factors contribute like biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry. But most importantly life experiences play a big role in developing mental health especially in the youth, because statistically trauma and abuse are the biggest factors on why men have developed mental health. When treating or preventing mental health some early signs are such as

Early warning signs

Eating or sleeping too much or too little
Pulling away from people or usual activities
Having little or no energy.
Feeling numb or like nothing really matters
Having unexplained aches or pain
Feeling helpless or hopeless

Places that offer services

These are just some of the many symptoms that they may have. But it can be prevented before it gets really bad. Some places that offer help would include

YMCA
Project oz
Path
Khesed

Effects on teens

These are just a few of the places that offer help to the youth and even adults locally.

The effect of mental health on teens has severely risen in the past few years with deaths of men rising because of holding it in, especially during covid teens that had voids with the gym and letting it out could not do so and many passed away because they could not take it anymore.

What's being done

A lot is not being done yes organizations promote it but do not aim it to the right people that they should be aiming it to. In some cases because we are talking about teens mental health should be aimed towards teachers and teens themselves health teachers especially.