Mental Health and DBT - Proactive Solutions

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy or DBT as it's often called, is being hailed as the modern world's solution to targeted interventions for a number of medically diagnosed conditions such as: suicidal behaviour, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, borderline personality disorder, emotion dysregulation and more. In her book, DBT Skills Training Manual, Marsha M. Linehan describes Dialectics - in terms of two tenets: reality and people's relationship or dialogue with reality (Linehan, 2015).

Interestingly enough, greater and greater focus on well-being is being manifested in society, and more specifically, in schools around the world. Students are more stressed, more anxious, and more distracted with technology, social media and gaming than ever before. Parental pressure is at its height as they realize the competitive advantage that education can have in the workplace.

In Canada as an example, CAMH (The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) indicates that 34% of Ontario High School Students indicate a moderate to serious level of psychological distress and 70% of mental health problems have their onset during childhood or adolescence (CAMH).

In his article entitled: "India is facing a mental health crisis and its education system is ill-equipped to handle it" Nikhil Govind emphasizes that mental health issues among youth in India are "not going away" and that "we are at the heart of a mental health epidemic . . . whose full scope we have scarcely fathomed" (Govind, 2017).

As students become more stressed and increased diagnoses of mental health related conditions amongst students becomes more prevalent, the call for mental health awareness and well-being becomes paramount.

Although DBT has gained recognition as a tool for therapeutic purposes for people who have specific 'medical' diagnosis, many of the skills presented in the Training Manual can be used in a preventative and pre-emptive sense for use with teachers and students. The Manual contains sections dedicated to Mindfulness Training, Interpersonal Skills Training and Emotion Regulation Training which can easily be adapted for schools and teacher training.

These skills, when Consciously applied, have the potential to positively impact teaching staff and students, resulting in more optimal levels of mental health and well-being.