The health of your brain should be equal to the health of your body. So says the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, a federal law that requires mental health to be treated the same as physical health. Whether that act indeed accomplished its goal is a story for another post, but one state is taking a step forward in mental health parity, this time in schools.
Oregon will now allow students to take “mental health days” in the same way they can take sick days. Utah was the first state to have a similar law on its books last year, but Oregon blazes the trail even further.
Youthful activism paved the way as a group of students made their voices heard.
“We were inspired by Parkland in the sense that it showed us that young people can totally change the political conversation,” Haily Hardcastle, one of the students spearheading the initiative, told the Associated Press. “Just like those movements, this bill is something completely coming from the youth.”
“It’s our generation,” added Derek Evans, speaking to TODAY. “It’s our duty to help.”
In Oregon, suicide is the second leading cause of death among those ages 10 to 34, according to the state’s Health Authority. The suicide rate there is 40% higher than the national average, partially due to more lax gun restrictions and lack of prevention programs. Almost 17% of 8th graders reported suicidal ideation in the past 12 months.
Before this law goes into effect, students are only allowed to be excused for physical health ailments like the flu or the common cold.
Debbie Plotnik, executive director of the nonprofit Mental Health America, stressed the importance of mental health parity in an interview with NBC News.
“The first step to confront this crisis is to reduce the stigma around it,” she said. “We need to say it’s just as OK to take care for mental health reasons as it is to care for a broken bone or a physical illness.”
Given the new law, students are less likely to lie about why they need to stay home.
“Why should we encourage lying to our parents and teachers?” Hardcastle said. “Being open to adults about our mental health promotes positive dialogue that could help kids get the help they need.”
Absenteeism is high in Oregon, where more than one in six children have missed 10% of school days, according to state data.
“I took on this cause for a personal reason first off because so many of my close friends in high school struggled with depression, and there were times when I saw them at school when they really shouldn’t have been there, [it] would have been much better for them to take a day off,” Hardcastle told TODAY.
The law goes into effect just in time for the new school year in the fall.
