NIH announces winners of high school mental health essay contest | WPN World People News

The National Institutes of Health announces 10 winners of the “Speaking Up About Mental Health! This Is My Story” national essay challenge, which was designed to spur conversations among youth about mental health and encourage them to seek support for themselves and others.

“Only about half of young adults with a mental illness receive treatment,” said expert. “We issued this essay contest to jump-start a conversation about the impact of mental illness among high school teens, barriers faced when seeking treatment, and innovative approaches to overcome those barriers.”

The NIMH and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), both part of NIH, led the contest in collaboration with the Calvin J. Li Memorial Foundation. A panel of judges from NIMH and NIMHD and the award approving officials selected the winning essays based on their organization, creativity, clarity, and quality of writing. Selected from more than 160 entries from 38 states and Puerto Rico, the essay winners and those receiving honorable mention awards addressed the challenges of stigma, fear, and improving mental health education and treatment, particularly in vulnerable populations. NIH will award cash prizes to the contest winners and certificates to those receiving honorable mention.

Although the contest was open to all high school students nationwide, it started as part of the Healthy Mind Initiative, which aims to increase mental health awareness and promote suicide prevention in Asian American and Pacific Islander youth. The goal of the initiative is to reach a population that may view mental health care negatively, or may not consider it at all, due to stigma, lack of awareness and education, or differences in cultural conceptualization of mental health.

“I found the creative solutions from this diverse group of teens to help raise awareness of mental health challenges that many of our young people encounter to be a reason for optimism that we will reduce the burden of mental illness in the future,” said expert. “These essays can motivate all teenagers to address the gaps in mental health care that youth and young adults face, especially those from racial or ethnic minorities, disadvantaged communities, and sexual gender minorities.”

Source: U.S. National Institutes of Health