Mental Health Awareness Month Is Not Enough: Why Culture Is the Missing Link
Awareness Alone Isn’t Working
Every May, schools across the country roll out Mental Health Awareness Month campaigns.
There are posters. Assemblies. Maybe even mindfulness minutes.
These efforts matter. But here’s the truth:
Awareness alone isn’t saving our students—or our teachers.
According to the CDC, more than 40% of high school students report persistent sadness or hopelessness.¹
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for youth aged 10–24.²
And teachers? Over 55% say they’re burned out, and more than a third say their mental health is poor or fair.³
If we want different results, we need a different approach.
Our Story: Beyond the Posters
We once worked with a school that launched a month-long “mental health awareness” campaign—complete with themed dress-up days, yoga in PE, and a few staff PD sessions on self-care.
But after May, nothing changed.
Behavior referrals were still high.
Teacher morale stayed low.
Students said they didn’t feel any more understood or supported.
That’s when the leadership team decided to go deeper—not wider.
They committed to a culture-first mental health strategy.
Through our Culture & Wellbeing Coaching programs using our Me. We. School. model, they began addressing the root causes of disconnection, stress, and emotional dysregulation.
Within a year, they experienced fewer discipline referrals and an increase in teacher retention with staff surveys that showed rising confidence in their ability to support student mental health.
The difference wasn’t the campaign.
It was the culture.
The Research: Culture as the Foundation of Mental Health
Here’s what the data tells us:
✔️ **Students in schools with a positive climate are more likely to seek help when struggling.**⁴
✔️ **Psychological safety leads to more engagement, lower anxiety, and higher academic performance.**⁵
✔️ Schools that invest in educator wellbeing see stronger student-teacher relationships—one of the top protective factors in youth mental health.⁶
Mental health doesn’t live in isolated programs.
It lives in the everyday experience of school.
The CWCC Approach: Making Mental Health a Living Practice
Through the Culture & Wellbeing Coach Certification, we train educators to:
Build trauma-aware, emotionally intelligent classrooms
Lead with vulnerability and boundaries
Create rituals, routines, and responses that foster regulation and connection
Integrate wellbeing into the DNA of how schools operate—not just how they talk
Because lasting change doesn’t come from awareness—it comes from alignment.
What You Can Do Right Now
Ready to go beyond the campaign? Start here:
Co-create norms with your team that support emotional safety: “We assume positive intent. We lead with compassion. We ask before we assume.”
Normalize rest and recovery—not just for students, but for educators. Celebrate moments of pause and reflection.
Redesign your response to behavior: Replace punishment with curiosity. Ask, “What happened?” instead of “What’s wrong with you?”
Let’s Make May the Starting Line, Not the Finish Line
Mental Health Awareness Month is a powerful moment to reflect—but it must also be a springboard for action.
If we want schools where mental health is more than a theme—it must become a cultural commitment.
Let’s build learning environments where students and teachers don’t just survive the system—they heal inside it.
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Sources:
¹ CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2021
² National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 2023
³ RAND Corporation, Teacher Burnout Study, 2022
⁴ CASEL, School Climate and Student Mental Health Report
⁵ Harvard Business Review on Psychological Safety
⁶ American Psychological Association, Educator-Student Relationship Study, 2021
