Why teachers Mental Health and well-being are Important for Success

Teachers often experience critical mental health challenges that need to be dealt with to ensure the effective academics of the students in the classroom. Certain mental health challenges faced by the teachers may cause further health-related problems if not dealt with timely. 

Let us closely examine and try to understand why addressing the critical mental health challenges teachers face inside and outside the classroom is important. 

Direct Impact on Student’s Overall Development:

The mental status of a teacher can directly impact the overall development of the student. A stressed teacher may not be able to focus on the subject and may distract the class with unwanted discussions. A stressed teacher may even get agitated and use a harsh tone within the class that may discourage the students from discussing their problems with the subject teacher.

A teacher leaves a constant impact on the life of a student. Students learn a lot from their teachers. They learn to behave well and solve their problems in their social surroundings. However, students with a teacher having critical mental health challenges may find it difficult to communicate with the teacher. Such teachers are often lost in thought and confused. There are better approaches than this, especially if someone is responsible for shaping students’ future.

Directly Impact Students’ Mental Health:

A classroom under the supervision of a happy teacher tends to be a marry-going classroom. A classroom with a stressed-out teacher often experiences burnout as the students cannot comprehend the cause behind the teacher’s distress. A distressed teacher is often frustrated and may create overwhelming emotions in the classroom.

Directly Impact the Personal Life

A distressed teacher is likely to experience a non-harmonious personal life. The stress felt at the work front is likely also to impact the personal life. A stressed teacher may be unable to spend quality time with loved ones and get agitated over small things.

Directly Impact the Professional Life

A school that fails to address the stress or mental health issues of the teachers often puts its staff at risk of unwanted quarrels and clashes. There are often disagreements at work, and teachers may not feel connected as a staff.

Direct Impact on Student’s Academic Performance:

Students need a calm and welcoming environment to learn and excel academically. A school that fails to address the mental health challenges of the teacher often has students with poor academic outputs. A teacher is the pillar of every student’s educational needs. A teacher who is caught with mental health issues or is stressed may not be able to address the queries of the students.

So, as we now know, unaddressed mental health issues of the teachers can directly impact their personal and professional lives as well as the overall development of the students. Every school or educational institute should provide training and programs to help teachers solve the issues they face. An institute can help reduce a teacher’s stress in many ways, with counseling being the top option.

Counseling Can Help Improve Teacher’s Mental Health

Just like students and parents, at times, counseling is required for the welfare of the student’s academic performance. The teacher may also be provided with timely counseling sessions to help them relieve their worries and find a way to deal with the overwhelming stress experienced in the classroom and office. Educational institutes can either hire a counselor or schedule sessions for the teachers.

Counseling has helped many schools in improving teacher and student relations. Educational institutes should also encourage peer-to-peer counseling to address the early signs of depression and anxiety in the teachers.

Conclusion:

Teachers mental health and well-being are critical for the success of the students and schools. Unfortunately, many institutes are failing to address the mental health issues faced by the teachers as a result of teachers feeling burnout amid growing pressures to perform better. The recent pandemic has already lowered the morale and self-confidence of the teachers. Every institute should deploy strategies to ensure teachers can cope with their daily stress at work and are provided with adequate resources to ease their stress. A teacher with a happy-go-lucky attitude can provide better guidance and support to the student.