Don’t Get Distracted – Big Problems Require Big Solutions, not Simple Ones
To believe we can solve the teen mental health crisis by forcing kids off social media and doing nothing about all these other things is foolish.
To believe we can solve the teen mental health crisis by forcing kids off social media and doing nothing about all these other things is foolish.
There have been some efforts to make health care more accessible in rural areas, but I’m not sure that we’ve done nearly as much when it comes to mental health and addiction treatment. I’ve read too many stories of people needing to travel 100 miles or more to see a therapist, or get a prescription for medication, let alone finding a rehab clinic with an opening. Throw in a system that too often forgets that they exist, or uses them as pawns in power grabs instead of trying to meet the needs of these communities, and it’s no wonder that many would be feeling helpless in the face of addiction and mental health issues.
That’s a problem. Building more jails isn’t going to solve it. Creating processes that help identify inmates with mental health issues but not the resources to immediately get them into treatment isn’t helping either. The numbers will just get higher. The only thing that will help is getting more resources to the people who need them. But we don’t. I believe the biggest reason we don’t is that we don’t see homeless people with mental health issues who run into legal problems as people who are worth the effort.
Child depression rates are skyrocketing – but social media isn’t to blame. Here’s why– Correlation is not causation, the relationship between mental health and social media is much more complicated than some would lead us to believe.
Movies that Matter: Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope