Incorporating Mental Health issues into Boy Scouting

The H&S Support Committee would like to see mental health issues addressed within the program. They are requesting feedback on the proposal. Their desire is to weave it into the advancement process. SME's are available to support this effort.

While scouting incorporates a good many aspects of physical health maintenance and injury/crisis management in its advancement process, aspects of mental health are not. Yet there are a number of aspects of mental health and illness that could be articulated and incorporated in the scouting education and advancement program.
A colleague talked about this matter with his nephew, who was an active scout. When asked about a scouting program to assess competencies in mental health, that scout suggested it would be a “great idea” to include this in the content of a merit badge. Indeed, he thought that Boy Scouts should be asked to have the following mental health competencies:
1. Have the ability to recognize signs of good and poor mental health in oneself and others
2. Know strategies for helping others with mental health problems
3. Be able to provide first aid for acute stress (“psychological first aid”)
4. Be familiar with different types of mental disorder
5. Recognize drug and alcohol abuse and their complications
This scout agreed that knowledge of drug and alcohol abuse and prevention are important, but he thought that material presently is covered fairly well. He suggested that material about mental health could be learned through a combination of reading and meetings with a mental health professional. He thinks that competency could be demonstrated through the combination of a written test and discussion or demonstration (i.e. role playing).