As a health teacher for the Shenendehowa school district, Dustin Verga sees firsthand the pressures today's youth are under.
They've grown up in an era of over-testing, jam-packed schedules, high expectations to get into a top college, and dual lives — one in the real world and one online, where the pressure to curate a picture-perfect life and rack up "likes" is ever-present.
That's why the introduction of mental health literacy in New York schools this coming fall is such a big deal, Verga said. For as long as anyone can remember, schools have taught children about physical health — food and nutrition, accidents and disease, mood-altering substances — but conspicuously absent has been the role mental health plays in a person's overall well-being.
[For more on this story by Bethany Bump, go to http://www.timesunion.com/loca...part-of-12531279.php]
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