Building a Strong Mental Foundation Recognizing and Addressing Teen Mental Health

Abstract

Adolescence is a crucial period, highly susceptible to various mental health issues, often unnoticed or inadequately addressed by adolescents themselves and their surroundings. The objective of this community service (PKM) study is to build a strong mental foundation and enhance the ability of SMK Al Hikmah Jakarta students to identify and manage mental health problems. The activity process was conducted in four main stages: initial observation to gauge students' understanding of mental health, interactive outreach on the importance of mental foundations and symptoms of mental disorders, group discussions and Q&A sessions to facilitate material comprehension, and a final evaluation to measure the impact and contributions of participants. The results indicate that students still have a low awareness of their mental health conditions, and there is a stigma that prevents them from disclosing their issues to others. Furthermore, limited implementation time affected student engagement and the depth of the material covered.