Each May, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month. While awareness is certainly an important component of tackling our nation’s mental health crisis, the theme chosen this year by NAMI highlights that more than just awareness is needed. It is time to come “Together for Mental Health” and to take action to transform the mental health care ecosystem.
Recently, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf spoke at Academy Health’s Health Datapalooza meeting and laid out several areas that the health care system must prioritize to improve outcomes and increase life expectancy. Many of his comments centered on better evidence, with a special emphasis on populations who are disproportionately impacted by negative outcomes.
Last week, I had the pleasure of being invited to present at the monthly COVID-19 Evidence Accelerator, which is hosted by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, the FDA, and Friends of Cancer Research. This month’s conversation was a continuation of an ongoing discussion about the impacts the pandemic has had and continues to have on mental health.
Last month, I wrote an editorial in the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry on the mental health crisis facing our nation’s children. A situation that was already becoming dire has only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic—one meta-analysis found that the proportions of the world’s youth experiencing depressive symptoms or anxiety symptoms have doubled from pre-pandemic levels.
U.S. President Joseph Biden recently gave his first State of the Union address, and we were pleased to see that he devoted a portion of his speech to addressing the mental health crisis—an issue that we at Holmusk see as the defining issue of our generation.
