Strategy Paper
My campaign is titled “Children’s Mental Health Matters”. The goal of my campaign is to improve the well-being of children in Michigan by requiring the addition of mental health awareness courses to curriculum for all K-8 schools by August 1st, 2024. There is a mental health crisis occurring within the K-8 age group that is not being addressed. According to the CDC (2022), 4.4 million children between the ages of 3-17 have been diagnosed with anxiety and 1.9 million have been diagnosed with depression. Additionally, there are more children who haven’t been formally diagnosed. If mental health awareness classes are taught in K-8 schools in Michigan, more children will be able to identify the early signs of mental health disorders, whether that be within themselves or maybe their friends! Additionally, students will know about the resources and coping techniques that are available to them if they are struggling with their mental health.
For my campaign, the target audience is parents of K-8 students. This is the audience group that directly interacts with the students that I am hoping to positively impact through my campaign. One method I utilized to perform an audience analysis on this population is analyzing a survey conducted by Verywell Mind in March of 2021. The survey’s demographics were “1,000 parents over the age of 18 who have children ages 4-18 who are living at home” (Morin, 2021). This survey aimed to “find out how concerned parents are about their kids’ mental health” (Morin, 2021). The results of this survey found that “one in five parents are extremely concerned about their kids’ mental health right now, and 60% of parents are at least moderately concerned… Over half of parents say they’re more concerned about their kids’ mental health now than they were at the start of the pandemic.” (Morin, 2021). Additionally, the survey highlighted that “31% struggle to teach their kids how to take productive action when faced with challenges, 34% struggle to show their kids how to learn to regulate their feelings, and 34% struggle to help their kids manage negative/unhelpful thoughts” (Morin, 2021). By analyzing this survey’s results, I was able to conclude that parents recognize that there is an escalating problem with their children’s mental health, and they are looking for resources to help their children that are struggling. To see my goal realized, thousands of Michigan parents must be mobilized to convince state legislators that there should be a new law requiring K-8 schools to incorporate mental health awareness courses in their curriculum.
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One counterargument to my campaign is that “individuals are ‘always responsible for their conduct’” (Benning, 2016). Some people do not believe that schools should be responsible for addressing children’s mental health and it should rather be addressed by the individual themselves. Another counterargument is that mental health awareness is simply not enough. “Most people looking for care couldn’t simply ‘reach out,’ as the billboards would have it, even if they wanted to. There are months-long wait lists for providers, and care isn’t cheap. Many providers don’t take insurance, meaning that people end up having to cough up at least $150 per session for a psychotherapist and $250 for a psychiatrist…Even if we lived in a country where everyone could immediately be seen by excellent providers they could afford, there would still be problems with framing our mental health crises as a matter of awareness. Many people have legitimate reasons for feeling anxious and hopeless” (Shade, 2021). While awareness can bring attention to a subject, some people do not think that it is enough to really address the crisis that may be occurring.
A challenge that will need to be addressed for this campaign is the process of making a law in Michigan. “During a two-year legislative session, 3000 to 4000 bills may be introduced for possible action. Bills can be introduced in either the House or Senate or, in some cases, identical bills are introduced in both chambers at the same time. When a bill is introduced in either chamber, it is sent to one of the committees that deals with that issue… House and Senate committees usually have five to seventeen members with some having subcommittees… The decision on whether a bill gets a hearing is entirely determined by the committee chair. If a bill goes to a second reading (or General Orders in the Senate), the House or Senate debates the bill and considers amendments both from committee members and the floor. If the bill is passed by the originating chamber, it then goes to the other chamber to repeat the process. If the second chamber makes changes to the original bill, then the bill must go back to the originating chamber for a vote on the changes… If both chambers come to agreement, then the bill is sent to the Governor for signature. If the Governor signs the bill, it becomes law ninety days after the close of the session or immediately if given “Immediate Effect” by the legislature. If the Governor vetoes the bill, then the bill is returned to the originating chamber. If both the House and Senate repass the bill with a 2/3’s vote, the Governor’s veto is overridden and the bill becomes law. If the bill is not passed with that margin, the bill dies” (Gibb, 2017). This process is incredibly long and tedious and is often out of the campaign creator’s hands since it is decided by the government officials. Many people will need to be onboard with the campaign’s mission and goal in order for this idea to come to fruition.
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In order to see my goal realized, I plan to create a Facebook page about the campaign. After researching my audience group, I chose the application Facebook because “parents - particularly moms and younger parents - are active users of Facebook. Facebook is not only the most popular social media site overall, it also has an especially engaged network of parents” (Duggan et al., 2015). I know my mom and her friends who are parents are active users of Facebook. I found it interesting that “younger parents (those under age 40) also are more likely to use Facebook on a daily basis than parents ages 40 and older. Some 82% of parents under age 40 log on daily, compared with 68% of older parents” (Duggan et al., 2015). I plan to create infographics regarding children's mental health statistics to inform more parents about the mental health crisis occurring within the United States. By providing parents with alarming, but honest statistics on children’s mental health, I believe they will be more likely to get involved with the initiative.
According to Borchers (2013), “persuaders use motivational appeals to produce some change in the values, beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors of audience members. A motivational appeal can also be viewed as the element of the message that signifies intensity, concern, or need.” Similar to the artifact I analyzed, I am going to have the dominant motivational appeal of my campaign be fear. Borchers (2013) explains that “a fear appeal describes a threat, indicates that audience members are likely to experience the threat, and indicates that one way audience members can avoid the threat is by adopting the message of the persuader.” Throughout the campaign, I want to highlight the threat or long-term consequences of child mental health going unaddressed. I selected fear as the dominant motivation appeal to really push my target audience of parents to recognize the importance of addressing child mental health concerns. This is a very serious topic and should be treated as such. In order to remain ethical, I will only utilize statistics and data sources that are current and truthful to ensure I am not persuading the audience by using false information.
I plan to utilize the agenda-setting theory as a campaign strategy as well. According to Borchers (2013), “the agenda-setting theory assumes that media may not be able to tell the public what to think, but the media are effective at telling the public what to think about… The last step in the agenda-setting process is the creation of the policy agenda, which is created by the public agenda. Ideally our representative in government enact laws that relate to the concerns of the public.” Ideally, by putting the campaign on Facebook, I am hoping to reach a wide audience of parents that may be unaware of the mental health crisis occurring. If my campaign successfully shows parents why children’s mental health needs to be addressed, it will become a concern to the public for our Michigan representatives. I believe that all these strategies, techniques, and appeals will help me gain participants and mobilize them effectively!
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References:
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Benning, T. B. (2016). No such thing as mental illness? critical reflections on the major ideas and legacy of Thomas Szasz. BJPsych Bulletin, 40(6), 292–295. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.115.053249
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Borchers, T. A. (2013). Persuasion in the Media Age (Third). Waveland Press, Inc.
CDC. (2022, March 4). Data and Statistics on Children's Mental Health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html
Duggan, M., Lenhart, A., Lampe, C., & Ellison, N. B. (2015, July 16). Main findings. Pew Research Center: Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/07/16/main-findings-14/#:~:text=Younger%20parents%20
Gibb, T. (2017, February 20). How a bill becomes law. MSU Extension. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/how_a_bill_becomes_law​
Morin, A. (2021, March 19). A Verywell Report: Parents Have Increasing Concerns About Kids’ Mental Health. Verywell Mind. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/parents-have-growing-concerns-about-kids-mental-health-5116732
Shade, C. (2021, January 25). The problem with mental health awareness. The Nation. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.thenation.com/article/society/mental-health-awareness/
