Sharing – Early intervention for mental health conditions can prevent escalation
We could make a massive improvement in society’s mental health by getting involved earlier, but we somehow continue to do very little and hope it won’t get worse.
We could make a massive improvement in society’s mental health by getting involved earlier, but we somehow continue to do very little and hope it won’t get worse.
As a survivor of childhood abuse, I don’t know if these being in place would have changed whether I reported it. For many of us, where abuse happens within the family, that’s a very complex question. What I do know is that those three things did not appear to exist, and that guaranteed I would not tell anyone about it until I was an adult, let alone report it.
It’s easy to talk about supporting mental health, but is it too much to ask that we fund the resources needed to provide that and allow them to exist in our neighborhoods?
It’s not just a lack of children’s stories that could help them develop these skills; it’s a lack of adults who can provide the example of those skills in action. It’s almost as if we don’t see the issues with emotional intelligence and mental health among young people as something older generations contributed to, by not being able to pass on our own stories as examples, because we didn’t have the skills either. We just grew up in a time when talking about it was considered taboo, and look how well that has turned out for us.
I’ve gotten some grief online for suggesting that murdering people who abuse children isn’t what the victim needs. Maybe, if you hear it from an expert, you’ll understand what I feel as a survivor who wouldn’t have told anyone if I knew it could lead to the death of another person, even my abuser.
What was obvious to me when reading the list was that most, not all, of the counties without a shortage of mental health resources were relatively suburban. They offer numerous advantages compared to urban and rural areas. Good schools, safe neighborhoods, access to healthcare of all kinds, etc. If you win the zip code lottery and find yourself born into one of these areas, there’s a fairly good chance that mental healthcare will be available for you if needed.