According to a recent poll released to mark the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week, the majority of teachers exhibit symptoms of clinical depression.
In the NASUWT teaching union’s well-being survey, approximately 12,000 teachers and headteachers were polled, and the average score was 38.7, while a score below 41 indicates a likely case of severe depression.
As many as 91% of teachers polled claimed that the stress of the work has taken a toll on their mental health in 2013.
In addition to teacher burnout, the pandemic’s effects were noted by 34% of respondents as a cause in their mental health problems.
Depression was more likely to be discovered in the classrooms of instructors with disabilities and those who worked in disadvantaged regions, according to the survey results.
There were teachers who experienced panic attacks as a consequence of bullying, and there were instructors who had been diagnosed with PTSD.
Only 3% of instructors said they had self-harmed in the last year.
There is worrying evidence of a mental health crisis in schools and of psychiatric damage and harm to teachers and headteachers, according to NASUWT national secretary Patrick Roach.
It’s reaching a breaking point for teachers and principals alike, according to Dr. Roach.
A mental health crisis in the workplace must be addressed immediately, he added.
“Ministers need to wake up to the truth and commit to make the improvement of the morale and health of the profession their number one priority,” he said.
School administrators and teachers deserve better.”
Employers and the HSE are reminded that they have a statutory obligation to act in response to this crisis and to take proactive action to protect and preserve the mental health and well-being of teachers and headteachers.
