In terms of prevention, being aware of and identifying those factors can reveal more serious mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, self-harming, suicide ideation, eating disorders or drugs consummation. Martinez, Espinosa, Zitko, Marin, Schilling, Schwerter and Rojas (2015) help me to think about depression in adolescence.
Depression is a highly prevalent and recurrent illness that affects people of all ages and carries high individual, family, and social costs. Depression in adolescents is of particular importance – prevalence begins to increase in this period and is associated with persistent and considerable functional impairment and serious negative consequences, such as suicide, poor performance at school, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, risk-taking behavior, and physical health problems.
Depression and self-harm are some mental illnesses which are difficult to identify due to the fact that students who may suffer from these illnesses, such as self-harm, try to hide symptoms. But, as
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Developing relationships with counsellors, safeguarding team, teachers, parents and students is fundamental. According to me, those interventions in school are essential because they reduce the stigmatisation and the fear, break the taboo about mental illnesses by highlighting the hopeful message that those are medically treatable. Changing attitudes and decreasing the stigma associated with adolescents mental disorders is a goal to achieve in schools. Through my experience, I was shocked to have been told 'If you do have difficulties with that student, it is because he is on medication.' or 'well, that kid is on medication, so do not lose your time with her' after asking for advices on how to deal with SEMH pupils. Crowley (2015) accentuates the importance of having 'an open-minded, non-judgemental but realistic practice around adolescent mental