How schools can better address mental health

Description:

Suicide rates in adolescents have tripled since the start of the pandemic, and 1 in 5 kids will not make it out of their childhood without a severe mental disorder. How should we address this mental health crisis to better prepare children for adolescence?

In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Erica Komisar, a clinical social worker, psychoanalyst, and author of Chicken Little the Sky Isn’t Falling: Raising Resilient Adolescents in the Age of Anxiety. Erica explains how children experienced intense losses and periods of neglect and sometimes abuse during the pandemic, on top of the typical challenges already associated with growing up. While parents should ideally play a primary role in their child’s wellbeing, Erica believes K-12 schools are not doing enough to help children. She advocates for each child to receive thirty minutes of therapy per week from social workers in order to provide the foundation of emotional security that kids need for future independence and self-sufficiency.

Resources:

• Five Steps Schools Can Take Now to Boost Youth Mental Health | Erica Komisar | Institute for Family Studies

• Many Teens Report Emotional and Physical Abuse by Parents During Lockdown | Ellen Barry | New York Times

Show notes:

• 01:35 | Covid-19 has amplified preexisting youth mental health issues

• 05:45 | How do we draw the line between the role that parents and schools have in children’s lives?

• 08:00 | Schools should have armies of social workers

• 16:45 | Kids are going into adolescence more neurologically fragile

• 19:10 | We treat young children as if they’re older and a project a sense of independence that they’re not prepared for