Mental health leave offered to Taiwanese students as youth suicides double
Taiwanese high schools will begin offering mental health leave to students this month, to address rising rates of youth suicide and high levels of stress and depression.
Under the programme, high school students can apply for up to three days off each semester, taken as full or half days, without proof of need but with the permission of their parents. More than 40 schools have expressed interest in the trial run, according to the ministry of education.
The scheme is in response to rising concerns over mental health issues among young people in Taiwan. Between 2014 and 2022, the suicide rate among people aged 15 to 24 more than doubled, even as the overall rate declined.
But some Taiwanese authorities have been criticised over their response to the crisis, with advocates saying extreme academic pressure on students is a key driver of stress, anxiety and depression.
In 2022, a senior official at the ministry of health and welfare came under fire from youth advocacy groups after linking the increase in suicides to the “growing number of tall buildings in Taiwan”. His comments were in response to a question from UN experts about whether Taiwan authorities had looked into systemic factors such as academic pressure, and were widely criticised as dismissive of growing concerns about the impact this had on students in Taiwan and other east Asian countries.
In 2022 the Child Welfare League Foundation conducted a survey of students, finding that more than 12% reported “severe” levels of stress, and was more than twice as bad among senior high school students than juniors. Almost a quarter of high school students said they had experienced severe depression. The survey said the top three drivers of stress reported were schoolwork (77%), future prospects (67%) and interpersonal relationships (43%).
“I could easily get into the top three grades in my class in junior high school, but now my grades are not as good as they should be,” one high school student told the Observer, who also listed personal and family relationships and body image as sources of anxiety.
“This has made me very anxious, and I’ve begun to worry about whether or not I’ll be able to get into a university or something like that.”
The girl said her teacher had discussed mental health leave with the class, but she didn’t think many of her fellow students would take it up.
“I don’t think you can deal with an emotional or mental state by taking time off school. It’s just an escape,” she said.
“No one is going to take this kind of leave … Even if they do, they will just stay home and study. I think a lot of parents would be against this policy. They’re not high school students, so they don’t know how much pressure we’re under.”
Hsiao Chih-hsien, a psychologist at the National Sun Yat-sen University counselling and health unit, said the leave days were a good step in the right direction.
“Mental health leave has a certain degree of effectiveness. It allows students to relieve the urgent stresses of the moment and have sufficient buffer rest time to digest and cope with their discomfort,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao suggested the programme could also help improve social attitudes towards mental illness. “If mental discomfort is seen in a normalised manner,” Hsiao said, “students will be more courageous in seeking help.”
In 2018, polling found that more than 53% of people in Taiwan thought mental illness was stigmatised in their society. An 18-year-old Taipei student said he believed this would hold many young people back from using the leave, for “fear they will be treated as mentally or psychologically ill by their classmates”.
The high school pilot programme emulates initiatives already running at dozens of Taiwanese universities, offering up to five days of mental health leave.
The National Taiwan University student union said there were 1,686 applications for mental health leave last semester, accounting for 5% of the students. The proportion was higher among arts students, of whom 11% applied for leave.
“As there are days in each semester when students can take the leave without any supporting documents, it is very helpful and flexible for students who are unable to attend classes due to temporary psychological problems,” a spokesperson said.
The union said students were positive about the programme, but there were teething problems, including some professors deducting attendance points from students who take the leave days.
Government guidelines for the scheme advise universities to pay increased attention to students’ emotional wellbeing and ensure counselling and other services are available alongside the leave days.
“All teachers (including tutors and supervisors), professional counsellors, and relevant personnel in teaching and administrative units should pay attention to the physical and mental health of students, and should not cause discrimination or stigmatisation due to the use of physical and mental adjustment leave,” it said, urging that students instead be encouraged to seek help.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Some professors deduct attendance points from students who take the leave days
nian quarter, but the initial payment of $2m (£1.6m) is barely the cost of a single apartment with an Old City view in nearby upmarket Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Yearly rent is just $300,000, reduced by any losses the hotel makes.
The Armenian copy of the contract doesn’t even include a map, says Hagop Djernazian, head of the Armenian Scouts Association and one of the young activists leading the campaign against the deal.
Signed in secret by the patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, in July 2021, it was leaked within months, causing shock waves far beyond the Armenian community. Jordan and the Palestinian Authority suspended their recognition of the patriarch as a result, saying it would change the status quo of the Old City.
“We have no illusions about what is going on. For us it is a land grab, whether it is under the name of Rothman or of building a hotel,” said Djernazian. “Any change in this plot will affect the status of Jerusalem, it will change the landscape.”The patriarch has since said he was misled, and accused his real-estate adviser Father Baret Yeretsian of corruption. Yeretsian denies any wrongdoing, but fled to America in May 2023, requiring police protection to get through angry crowds gathered outside his home.
Many Armenians see echoes of the controversial sale by the Greek patriarchate of two large hotels in the Old City to Ateret Cohanim, which promotes and funds Jewish settlements in and around the Old City. The church challenged the deal, saying it involved bribery and conspiracy, but lost its case.
Haaretz newspaper published a photo of Rothman and Warwar at a Jerusalem hotel with Ateret Cohanim founder Mati Dan.
Dan denied any connection to the deal. Yeretsian, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, brushed off the comparison. “The Greeks made the contract with Ateret Cohanim,” he said. “We did it with a secular Jew.”
But Armenians pointed to settlers who turned up with bulldozers, and say their community will be devastated by the loss of the land, whoever takes it.
“This is our heritage, we don’t look at it as property,” said George Hintlian, who for 25 years served as property secretary for the Armenian community and said he fended off multiple attempts to buy the Cows’ Garden in that period. “We got offers on all levels, but we were successful in protecting it.
“The settlers look at it as a precious acquisition, we look at it as something that will affect our community life. It is the biggest seminary for the diaspora. If we lose it, where will we train our priests?”
Last October, Manougian informed Xana that he was unilaterally cancelling the deal. Days later, the bulldozers arrived.
Many in the Armenian community think it is no coincidence that an issue that had been brewing for years erupted when world attention was focused on the Israel-Gaza war.
“The war gives a cover,” Hintlian said, warning that if the contract is allowed to stand, it will set a dangerous precedent. “This will open the door for future grabs, even using violence.”
Their dispute has been over shadowed by the war, but perhaps also accelerated by it. With global media and political attention consumed by that conflict, there has been a rise in land grabs and attacks by violent settlers across occupied Palestinian territories, and a spike in demolitions across East Jerusalem.
There were an average 10 demolitions of housing units a month in the first nine months of 2023, but after the 7 October attacks by Hamas, the average monthly rate of demolitions increased to 17, Haaretz reported.
In January, the home of anti-demolition campaigner Fakhri Abu Diab was targeted, prompting international condemnation including from the EU and the US. “These acts obstruct efforts to advance a durable and lasting peace and security that would benefit not just Palestinians, but Israelis,” said state department spokesman Matthew Miller.
On 18 February, Armenian activists launched a legal case based on documents dating back more than 400 years showing the land was held in trust for the community, so the patriarch did not have the authority to sign it away.
But Djernazian says social media has allowed them to publicise the fight to the Armenian diaspora, foreign diplomats and other churches, putting them in a stronger position than their former neighbours.
“I don’t know what our chances are but I do think we are in a better situation,” he said in the protest camp. “We have public opinion on our side. When the issue of the Greeks happened, you had to wait days for a media outlet to publish something.
“Now live video can spread round the world, we can bring the news to people’s phones in a minute.”