Society’s perception of mental health has changed significantly over the past few decades. Mental health treatment has been taken into consideration by more people and has been growing in support. In recent years, mental health support has found its way to WJ. The school has added resources including Wellness Wednesday, more counselors, Bridge to Wellness and staff support with the goal of promoting mental health and awareness. 

“I think mental health is being talked about a lot more and I think it’s been more widely acknowledged and accepted specifically with teachers,” counselor Ashley Weddle said. “We know that it’s a big part of high school students’ well-being and we’ve noticed a difference in teachers approaching the term.” 

Not only have teachers taken mental health more seriously, but students also feel more understood and appreciated. 

“Teachers provide a lot of time for students to have wellness such as Wellness Wednesday and the new phone rule allows us to focus more. They also give us time to finish our work,” senior Lana Egnova said.

With the numerous benefits WJ offers today for students struggling with mental health, it’s difficult to imagine a time where not only would such struggles go unspoken of — they were subject to constant stigmatization. 

Historically, struggling with mental health was viewed as a sign of personal weakness. Because it wasn’t a visible or physical ailment, it was often overlooked. People grappled with it for years before admitting that they needed help, assuming that they simply needed to “push through.” This simplistic view led conversations surrounding mental health to be limited and sometimes met with judgment and impassivity.

How society viewed such a topic heavily shaped how key institutions (such as schools) approached them as well. It’s not as if schools were intentionally trying to overlook the mental struggles of their students, but if the topic at hand remained rather “taboo” or unspoken of in a community, then that perception would be carried into the school as well. 

“In the past if somebody was anxious it would be more common for someone to say, well, ‘you worry too much, accept the situation and move on,’ or with depressive symptoms, ‘you know, we all get sad,’” counselor Dennis Reynolds said. “‘You’ll get over it, focus on something happy.’ It wasn’t a complete non-recognition of somebody experiencing some mental health issues, but it was just that simple old school way of thinking.”

Before the introduction of additional support systems to WJ, such as the Bridge to Wellness, our school’s primary help came from the counseling department. While trained to handle difficult situations with students, counselors are often flooded with demands surrounding schedules and academic conflicts that make tackling the mental health of their students challenging. 

“Today, there’s a lot more awareness around the need to support students at school that are struggling because of mental health,” counselor Lisa Sorenson said. “I think a lot of times, maybe around 20 years ago, students and families weren’t as comfortable approaching the school about a student’s mental health issues.”