Mary Walsh, Executive Director of City Connects, had a letter to the editor published that responds to the op-ed, calling for a more comprehensive understanding of how to think about mental health.
In his op-ed, Ferguson appreciates the need to destigmatize people who have mental health challenges, but he also worries that students are being encouraged to focus too heavily on mental health. He points to a new book by journalist Abigail Shrier, “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up,” which suggests “that the national focus on turning everything into therapy and trauma may be one root cause.”
Ferguson concludes that “there is enough reason at this juncture to pull back from the full-throated celebration and obsession with mental health and reconsider how best to help those in need without merely creating more neuroses.”
In her letter to the editor, Walsh acknowledges “the challenges of heightening awareness of mental health issues without a commensurate focus on supporting children’s capacity for resilience,” and she calls for thoughtful action, writing:
“It’s time to broaden our perspective on how to support healthy child development and well-being. Access to diverse opportunities, including after-school programs, the arts, and sports, are vital to helping children build self-confidence, mastery, and connections to peers and adults. Approaches to student support that address needs and cultivate student strengths show robust positive outcomes, as we’ve found in our review of the research. When we adopt balanced approaches, only then will we fully reap the benefits of a heightened focus on mental health.”
This is the approach that City Connects takes. City Connects Coordinators conduct whole class reviews to understand students’ strengths and needs. Coordinators then provide a customized set of services and enrichment opportunities for each student that fit their current circumstances — and set them up for long-term resilience and success that include greater academic success and lower dropout rates.
Paying attention to mental health needs and challenges is important, but at City Connects we think it’s even more important to equip students for success in ways that protect and promote their mental health proactively.
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