Wednesday, February 2nd, 1999
Announcements:
                           None
Lecture notes:

Mental Health (the first of the ten content areas within School Health Instruction) CONTINUED...

Basic points about child mental health

• Between 15% and 30% of elementary school students have significant mental health  needs (child needs assistance beyond what school/home offers.)

• It is estimated that 12% of youths under age 18 years suffer from mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, according to Healthy People 2000.

• Approximately 7 million school children cope daily with parents who are alcoholics.

• 3-6 million children in the United States suffer from depression, most of which is untreated.

• Children exposed to drugs prenatally or environmentally may manifest disruptive classroom behaviors as early as grades kindergarten to third grade.

• Prepare a worksheet with a problem situation incorporated into a story.
• An example of a problem situation:
  GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
  Sarah and Elisha are team captains.  Today they are playing softball against one another.  Sarah says, "Out" on one play and Elisha disagrees.  They begin to argue and Sarah hits Elisha.  What should Elisha do?
  A.) hit Sarah back
  B.) tell the teacher Sarah hit her
  C.) ask Sarah if that made her feel better and suggest doing the play over
  D.) call Sarah a name
  E.) run away from Sarah
• Lead a discussion:  here are some sample questions to ask the class to encourage group discussion
• Is there a problem in this story?
• Who has this problem?
• Do you think this is a recurring problem?
• How would you solve it (which of these choices would you make)?
• Is there a good immediate solution listed?
• Is this solution the best solution for later on?
• How would you have solved it differently?
• Does anyone have a different solution?

• The journal--as a journal entry each student might write a poem, describe a dream, or share one thing he is pleased about or unhappy about.
• designing self collages--using pictures or words cut from magazines, have students create a collage that is representative of places they've been, people they admire, or favorites activities.  have students write their names on the back only.  hang the collages around the room and have students guess which student made which collage.
• accentuate the positive--break students into small groups.  have everyone in the group say positive things about all the other group members.  NO PUT-DOWNS ALLOWED!  each student should record the positive comments in his/her journal.
• thumbprints--have each student make a thumbprint and explain that everyone is unique because no one has the same thumbprint as anyone else.