CLEVELAND — The nation's top doctor visited Cleveland on Wednesday as efforts ramp up to help tackle youth mental health.
"We have a youth mental health crisis in our country, there's no question about that," Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, said.
Along with Mayor Justin Bibb, the two held a dialogue with Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school students on mental health and the student’s life experiences, including three years of pandemic learning plus an abundance of school shootings across the nation.
"We have to make sure we have counselors in schools and there's more mental health care in hospitals and clinics, but also know we have to address trauma and gun violence and some of the harmful effects of technology, particularly social media and our kids," Murthy added.
According to data from the CDC, more than a third of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic, with 44% reporting they felt sad and hopeless during the past year.
Additionally, more than 55% reported they experienced emotional abuse by a parent or other adult in the home.
“My administration recognizes that the youth mental health crisis is a complex issue with far-reaching, and often devastating, consequences,” Bibb said in a statement. “This visit by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Murthy is an important opportunity to elevate youth and community voices, connect leaders with resources, and bring national attention to the work being done in Cleveland in the mental health space.”
This conversation comes as early estimates show in 2020 across the country, more than 6,600 kids and young adults died by suicide — a number Murthy said is likely will go up as the data continues to come in on the damage done by three years of the pandemic.
"We should not go back to 2019 and assume that's the ideal," he explained. "We've got to do better than where we were in 2019. We have to do better with how we get the funds out to the organization on the ground doing the hard work that needs to be done in neighborhoods supporting young kids who are experiencing trauma."
To learn more about the federal efforts to tackle youth mental health, click here.
If you're in crisis, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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