H.R.

 

                          PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATION ACT (PEA)

 

Title: The Psychological Education Act 2024

Purpose: To integrate psychological, neuroscience, sociological education, and awareness of mental illness effects personally and societally into the K-12 curriculum nationwide, aiming to reduce mental illness prevalence and to begin reversing the personal and societal effects of mental illness on children, society, and future generations. 

 Psychological Paradigm Shift Movement 
The Psychological Paradigm Shift will define human communication and decision making for the 21st century. What is a paradigm shift? Consider things around you today that you think are normal and you’ve grown accustomed to and then tomorrow some new information or technology is created, and then, what was normal to you yesterday is not normal today. In history, we’ve experienced many paradigm shifts. One day we rode horses for transportation, then we invented automobiles, and they changed transportation forever. One day, we used hard line telephones, then we invented the iPhone. I remember using carbon paper with manual typewriters, then we invented personal and industrial computers. We used to own other humans, then; we didn’t. Paradigm Shifts usher in new ways of thinking and behaving. That is what the Psychological Paradigm Shift Movement is about.  

I have been concerned for a long time that we humans are devolving, not evolving. The reason for this de-evolution is because we have never really gotten a grip on the primary cause of all social and human conflicts, mental illness. Psychological disorders have been with us since Cain and Abel, or the Sumerian King Gods Enlil and Enki. Mental illness has been part of our societal makeup forever, and until we put concrete actions in place to eliminate it, it always will be. Mental illness is one of the oldest human diseases we suffer from. It is also the most undiagnosed and untreated disease we have. In 2022 the Psychiatric community finally acknowledged the massive level of Americans suffering from a mental disorder that they created a 988-telephone number for people who are in psychological distress to call for help. We spend trillions of dollars annually and employ millions of people, trying to manage the behaviors and actions of the mentally ill. The costs are staggering for such things as the Defense Budget, facilities for addictions, policing, court systems, facilities for mental illness treatments, psychotropic drugs, imprisonment facilities, child welfare, foster care. I could go on and on. I believe this Psychological Paradigm Shift is the concrete action necessary to get a handle on mental illness in the 21st century and beyond.  All societies flourish on the ability of their members to have the freedom to think and speak freely. Members of societies have contracts with each other to maintain our ability to live with one another in peace. Societal contracts can be strained and sometimes even broken, when members of societies are allowed to abuse other members, including children. We create laws to maintain this peace and provide law, order, and justice, to our citizens. For a society to evolve, it must provide for growth and change, as new knowledge is shared with its citizens. In a democratic republic we create laws to help society evolve and give all citizens the right to the pursuit of happiness. We must as citizens assist each other in using factual knowledge to evolve together as a cohesive productive society. The key translator of latest information is through communication, either by education, social media, news outlets, publications or by word of mouth. To implement a national psychological paradigm shift of thinking in our society, it will take all these forms of communication.  Psychological education of our children is the impactful tool to reverse the millennia of mental illness on a national and global scale.

The psychiatric community states that over twenty percent of all Americans suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. The illnesses range from Personality Disorders, Depressive Disorders, Induced Psychosis, ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders, and many other disorders. Millions of  Americans go undiagnosed and untreated throughout their childhoods and adult lives.

The reasons why are:

One-poverty, the U.S. Census estimates that over thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty. The average cost of a psychologists-psychiatrist is $90-$500 per hour, half of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, they will never be able to afford these fees.

Two-lack of therapists, there are less than three hundred thousand psychologists and psychiatrists in the United States to service over 333 million Americans.  The Kaiser Family Foundation stated in 2022 that 47 percent of the U.S. population lived in a mental health workforce shortage area. Compare these numbers to the United States  auto industry that employees over 1.7million people directly and 8 million  indirectly.

Three-lack of school psychological counselors, the national average recommended should be 1 counselor to 250 students, in Utah the ratio is 1-499 counselor to student ratio, with many schools having no counselors.

Four-Parents who suffer from psychological illnesses cannot help their child with their struggles, because the parents are drowning in their own chaotic struggles, from alcoholism, drug addiction, criminal activity, depression, anxiety, and the dozens of other mental disorders.  

Five-Lack of general knowledge of psychology or psychiatry, most Americans have never been exposed to any information on where psychological disorders come from and how to acknowledge their existence in themselves or others, especially their own children. This mass ignorance is the number one culprit to all of Americas societal problems when it comes to crime, spousal and child abuse, law enforcement needs, and the trillions of dollars America spends every year combating the activities of the mentally ill, nationally, and globally.

This law is the only weapon American society, and the worlds societies will have to combat the mental illnesses humans have had since the beginning of time.  We must empower the current and future young citizens to reverse the generations of mental illness that they are growing up in, and will grow up in.

We must educate all our children about what mental illness is and how to heal themselves with the knowledge of the foundations of psychology. If we do not empower the children with the knowledge of psychology, none of the daily destructive acts of the mentally will ever change. Mental illness is the cancer of the mind, and only knowledge will cure it.

 

 

Justification for legislations:   

The psychiatric community has been categorizing mental disorders since 1844, their goal has been to create a structure for all students, practitioners, researchers, and scientists throughout the world to have the evidence to diagnose, treat, conduct research, and help their patients and all citizens who struggle with or will struggle with because of hereditary factors.

The AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION has been maintaining their research and facts through a manual they use to diagnose the mental disorders, their patients are afflicted with titled “DSM-DIAGONOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS”  The manual contains over twenty-one categories of mental disorders from Schizophrenia to Bi-polar depression, and many additional subcategories.

The educational classes for K-12 will introduce these disorders to children in ways that they will be able to comprehend for their age and learning abilities as a national group.

There will be testing requirements to advance each student to the next grade or level of understanding. These testing requirements will be standardized, according to current guidelines for all subject matters for any grade level. These testing requirements will be an excellent vehicle to assess the general knowledge and understanding of each student before they advance. The educational instructions and requirements might also give students the abilities year by year instructions of psychological  knowledge will help the children realize how abnormal their childhood may be. Psychological knowledge will  be the key to them understanding the thinking and behaviors of their parents, siblings, and close family members, and empowering the children not to  become induced into the psychoses of their parents and family members. It will also empower these students to not suppress the damages done to them or currently being done to them and may give them the ability to seek psychological help, independent from their parents. Many abuses of children scar their psychological foundations and create complex permanent PTSD, psychological knowledge may empower these children to seek treatment and stop a lifelong struggle of their own mental torments.

 

Because America will begin the educational process in kindergarten, and tools like the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) test can be administered in all children nationally, it will provide early detection processes for children who are at risk. This will give the psychological professionals the right kind of information and time to rectify many very abusive situations that children are currently being exposed to.

 

Curriculum Overview:
 

Since no psychological educational classes have ever been created or introduced in the educational institutions for K-12 classrooms, these materials must be created from scratch. The psychological community will be part of the team of educators who specialize in creating materials for the students in each of these grade levels.

Kindergarten to Grade 2:

Introduction to emotions, basic brain functions, and social interaction.

Grades 3 to 5:

Basic understanding of mental illness, brain anatomy, and societal roles.

Grades 6 to 8:

Deeper dive into psychological concepts, neuroscience basics, introduction to sociology, and mental illness awareness.

Grades 9 to 12:

Advanced coursework in psychology, neuroscience, sociology, including understanding mental illnesses, their effects, and preventative measures.
 

Budgetary Considerations:

The budgeting of psychological educational structure will be like all classroom costs for educators, instructional manuals, testing materials, and oversight.

The budgeting will be ongoing, psychological education will become a permanent educational structure and funding for the process will be budgeted for all state educators, state legislators, and the Department of Education, they must build the costs into their permanent budgeting models.

Development of curriculum materials and teacher training programs.
Creation of specific staffing requirements.
Infrastructure adjustments for new classes.
Comparison with existing subjects like math, English, and science to ensure equitable funding.
 
Implementation Timeline:
This legislation becomes effective three months after the date of enactment. Educational materials must be ready for use and introduced in the timeline of the next calendar year of school enrollments, or, twelve months after enactment of this legislation.