[Young people are grappling with challenges that no generation in
modern history has been forced to deal with. They need our help now]
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AMERICA IS FACING A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS  
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Bernie Sanders
June 13, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Young people are grappling with challenges that no generation in
modern history has been forced to deal with. They need our help now _

‘The pandemic, the worst public health crisis in over 100 years,
created fears in children about whether they or their loved ones would
get sick or die. That’s an anxiety not easily dealt with by young,
developing minds.’ , Peter Byrne/PA

 

This country faces a longstanding mental health crisis, exacerbated by
the isolation, fears and uncertainties of the pandemic. This crisis
affects all generations, but has been especially devastating for young
people.

In America today, 40% of parents report being either extremely or very
worried that their child is struggling with anxiety or depression.

And they are right to be worried.
 
According to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, nearly one out of every three teenagers in America
reported that the state of their mental health was poor. Two out of
every five teenagers felt persistently sad or hopeless. According to
the National Alliance on Mental Illness, suicide is the second-leading
cause of death among people age 15 to 24 in the United States. Nearly
20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9%
have made an attempt to take their lives.
In recent months I have had the opportunity to visit a number of
schools throughout Vermont and have spoken with students, teachers,
administrators and parents. As chairman of the US Senate committee on
health, education, labor and pensions, I have spoken with national
experts and recently held a hearing on this subject that featured Dr
Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, who has written extensively on
this subject.
What I have learned is that our young people today face challenges
that no generation in modern history has ever been forced to deal
with. The pandemic, the worst public health crisis in over 100 years,
created fears in children about whether they or their loved ones would
get sick or die. That’s an anxiety not easily dealt with by young,
developing minds. And let us not forget: over 200,000 children did
lose one or both of their parents to Covid and millions more saw
relatives and acquaintances become sick or hospitalized. That grief
and fear remains long after any national emergency is declared over.

The pandemic also brought about a massive disruption in the normal,
day-to-day lives of our youth. For the first time in modern history
our young people, by the millions, stopped attending school. Not only
was their education severely impacted, but so were their social lives.
No more getting together with friends after school or on weekends. No
more dating. No more team sports. No more theater or chorus. No more
doing the normal things that their parents and older brothers and
sisters did.

But it was not just the pandemic’s impact on health that affected
our young people. The pandemic also brought forth an unprecedented
level of economic anxiety. It was only a few years ago that, as a
result of Covid, millions of workers lost their jobs, lost their
health insurance and were worried about being evicted from their homes
and apartments. We can all remember the long lines of Americans lining
up for emergency food boxes to feed their families. When parents lose
their jobs, when they struggle to pay the rent, when they worry about
putting food on the table and how to get the healthcare they need,
their children are often struggling quietly beside them.

[kids and mother look at computer screens]
‘For the first time in modern history our young people, by the
millions, stopped attending school.’ Photograph: Christopher
Millette/AP

And young people know something else. This economy is not working for
them. Unless we bring about long-needed reforms, their generation will
have a lower standard of living than their parents’. How are they
going to afford to go to college or pay off their student debts? Will
they ever be able to buy their own home or afford healthcare? Young
people are worrying about these things on a daily basis.

And then there is the radical impact that screen time and social media
have had on the younger generation, something that previous
generations have never experienced. According to a recent survey, most
kids are spending more than five hours a day on social media or
playing video games. Thirty-two per cent of teens surveyed said they
were online for five to six hours, 17% reported being online for seven
to eight hours and 13% said they were online nine or more hours a day.

What is the impact of all that screen time?

Well, according to a recent study, 32% of teen girls said that when
they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.

More than 40% of Instagram users who reported feeling
“unattractive” said the feeling began on Instagram.

About 25% of teenagers who reported feeling “not good enough” said
it started on Instagram.

But it’s not just Instagram. The same can be said for Twitter,
Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and other social media platforms.

And let’s be clear. When it comes to social media, we are up against
some of the most creative minds in the world, who keep coming up with
new ways to get teenagers addicted to their sites in order to sell
them more products and make more money. Clearly, the mental health
damage they do to millions of young people is much less important to
them than the huge profits they are reaping.

Two other issues have also kept emerging in my discussions with young
people.

They are deeply concerned about climate change – and whether the
planet that they and their children will be living on will be healthy
or habitable. And they also question their government and the kind of
political leadership in this country that has allowed this existential
threat to occur.

And then there is the issue of gun violence. Incredibly, there have
been well over 200 mass shootings in the United States this year. They
have taken place in virtually every state in the country. Almost all
public schools in America now have active shooter drills. For many
kids, obviously, the thought of such an attack is extremely
frightening and can have a profound impact on their mental health.

That is just some of the tragic reality affecting the mental health of
tens of millions of young people in our country today.

And what are we doing to address this crisis? The answer is: not much.

[protest against gun violence]
‘Incredibly, there have been well over 200 mass shootings in the
United States this year.’ Photograph: John Amis/AFP/Getty Images

Despite spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as almost any
other major country on Earth, our broken and dysfunctional healthcare
system allows 85 million Americans to be either uninsured or
underinsured. The result: tens of millions of our people cannot afford
the mental health treatments they may desperately need. This is just
one more reason why we must move away from the horrific system we
currently have, which is designed to bring massive profits to the
insurance industry and drug companies, and pass the Medicare for All
legislation I recently introduced. Unfortunately, as a result of a
corrupt and rigged political system, that is not going to happen
tomorrow.

Further, even with decent insurance, it is hard for many to find the
psychiatrists, psychologists, addiction counselors or social workers
where they live. As a nation, our healthcare workforce, especially in
mental health, is woefully inadequate.

Right now, as chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions
committee, I am working hard with my staff to address the mental
health crisis within the current political realities we face. We are
drafting legislation to greatly increase the number of mental health
providers in the country and get them into the schools and communities
where they are needed most. We are also fighting for a major increase
in federally funded health care clinics so that anyone in this
country, regardless of income, can get the healthcare they need -
including mental health services.

But, as important as increasing availability to mental health
treatment is, we have got to do much more if we’re going to address
the root causes of this crisis.

In my view, if we are truly going to resolve the mental health crisis
that we face, we will need a political revolution that creates a
society based on justice, compassion, human solidarity and a growing
sense of community. We can no longer abide the grotesque level of
corporate greed that pervades every aspect of our economy. We must
move to a society in which people are treated as human beings, not
commodities.

Our goals are clear. We need to create an economy that works for all,
not just the 1%. We need to give hope to those who have lost hope. We
need to revitalize democracy, bring new people into the political
process and end the corrupt campaign finance system we now have. We
need to end all forms of bigotry.

Is any of this easy? No. Those who own and control our economic and
political systems have endless resources at their disposal to maintain
the destructive status quo. But the simple truth is that we have no
moral choice. If we truly care about our kids and grandchildren, if we
care about the very future of our planet, we must stand up and fight
back.

Let’s do it.

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Bernie Sanders is a US senator and chairman of the health education
labor and pensions committee

* Mental Health Crisis; Youth Mental Health; US Health System;
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