My office is on the second floor of our school building, and I bear witness to the ways our children are struggling in real time: I see the students who need extra support for their anxiety when we are going to have a lockdown drill. I watch children enter our Regulation Station, using the sensory materials in the room to engage their physical body in a way that helps them enter the classroom as a productive student. I hear the cries of children who are frustrated or upset from a conflict with a peer and don’t have the skills to solve it independently. I track the students who visit Nurse Brandi regularly, sometimes with a true physical ailment but often for a physical ailment that is caused by an emotional one.
Each of these examples are clues about the state of mental health in children and adolescents, a topic that has been on my mind lately. We know that depression rates in teenagers increased 60% from 2007 to 2019, and that suicide has become the second leading cause of death in people aged 10-24. In 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that “mental health disorders have surpassed physical conditions” as the main source of impairment and limitations for adolescents. The AAP also acknowledged that pediatricians need to take on a larger role, but mental health has simply not been part of the training. Instead of the chicken pox and flu, doctors need to be prepared for depression, suicide and cutting.
As we launch into this new year, and as I begin a third year of these essays, it’s the mental health of our kids and teens that I'm thinking about as both a parent and an educator. What can we do, as people who love kids, to help them grow up with the best possible chances of being happy and healthy teenagers and adults? What choices can we make to cushion our kids? What are the antidotes - and how does Pressman help to provide these antidotes to our kids and families as well? I want to grapple with what’s going on, I want to explore what really matters, and I want to consider what we can do to stem this tide.
We know some of the steps we can take to help our children to develop healthy habits and to provide antidotes to depression and anxiety. And we also know that many of these habits are embedded in Judaism and in the Pressman Academy experience. To be clear, we cannot prevent all challenges with mental health, just like we cannot prevent all challenges with physical health. But in the same way we know about the habits that are more likely to set someone up for a physically healthy life, we also know the habits that are more likely to set someone up for a mentally healthy life.
I don’t mean to paint a picture of doom and gloom – there is so much joy in our world, and everyday I witness scenes that make me feel hopeful for our children. Just like I see kids struggling in real time, I see them thriving in real time too – singing for Rosh Hashana, transporting friends on the back of a bike on the bike path, engaging in debates about Zionist philosophies, hugging their teachers in the hallways. I am proud to be raising kids who are deeply rooted in community, and I am honored to be an educator in a community that is able to put kids’ needs first when making decisions. There is a lot that is going right, and I am excited to use this year to build upon strength, to think intentionally about the decisions we want to make as parents, and to give our kids the resources they need to be the healthiest and happiest versions of themselves.
