UK schools are teaching teenagers about mental health in the wrong way

Rather than helping, lessons may be encouraging pupils to dwell on negative feelings without the necessary support to address them

By Lucy Foulkes

TEENAGERS are experiencing a mental health crisis. I am not just talking about the increase in mental health problems that have been reported in them over the past decade or so. I am talking about what UK schools are being asked to do in response.

Many secondary schools in the UK – which educate those aged 11 up to 18 – now teach mental health skills, such as mindfulness or techniques from cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). In a “universal” approach, these lessons are taught to all students, regardless of their level of need. The idea is to give all teenagers …