St Margaret College Verdala School Queen’s Young Leaders Group last Monday addressed a school morning assembly together with their group founder teacher, Martin Azzopardi SDC, to raise awareness about mental health and to mark World Mental Health Awareness Day, which is celebrated every year on October 10.
Mental health affects the way people manage their daily burdens or problems, their relationship with others and their decision taking. Mental illness takes various forms and there are different levels of severity. Schizophrenia and Bipolar mental illness are both considered as severe types ofmental illnesses that affect one per cent of the population. On the other hand, depression is more common, affecting round 15 per cent of the population.
According to EU statistics, one out of every four people in Europe experiences some form of psychiatric problem in life, and the situation in Malta is similar. The data also indicates that the problem of mental illness is increasing, so we need more awareness, education and action in this regard.
The EU is pushing its Member States to formulate and implement national strategies to safeguard mental health, especially among students and youths.
The prime cause of mental illness is daily stress, which needs to be handled with care.
Another factor influencing mental health is the use of drugs and alcohol. Some medical conditions, like the thyroid deficiency, can also affect mental health.
St Margaret Queen’s Young Leaders Group was founded in 2014 and every year it is inspired by speeches by Queen Elizabeth II to write and publish articles promoting moral values.
On the day dedicated to mental health, the group invited the school students to reflect upon the causes of mental illness.
During the assembly, students were asked what caused mental tiredness in their lives and the following were some of their answers: “labelling students as ‘failures’ or ‘low achievers’”; “social family problems”; “too much pressure from parents to achieve high scores at school”; “when you have too many lessons and subjects at one go”; “lack of family love and support”; “all sorts of bullying”; “too much pressure for examinations”; and “excessive use of technology without limits”.