Editorial

As she wrapped up an interview with BusinessWest for the story on  Kathleen Szegda, director of Community Research and Evaluation at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, wanted to emphasize that PHIWM doesn’t work alone when it comes to tackling mental health — with an particular focus on youth mental health — in the 413.

“We do this all in collaboration,” she said. “So I just want to make sure that’s lifted up — that we’re doing this in partnership with so many amazing groups.”

It’s true. In addition to its many community program partners, stakeholders ranging from public schools and colleges to a host of mental-health organizations — River Valley Counseling Center, Clinical & Support Options, MiraVista, Gándara Center, and several others — were among the many advisory-group voices that helped craft the Youth Mental Health Roadmap for Western Massachusetts, which focuses on five themes: destigmatizing and normalizing mental health, boosting social connection, developing social and emotional learning, grappling with social media, and connecting mental-health promotion with clinical care.

But there’s another group that has long been intimately involved in PHIWM’s strategies and outreach around youth mental health, and that’s teenagers themselves, who — largely through a group called Beat the Odds, but in other ways as well — have provided a valued, street-level perspective to these issues that goes far beyond survey data.

But their involvement also speaks to another development, this one positive: the continued destigmatization of mental health among teenagers. Numerous behavioral-health professionals across the region have told BusinessWest for years now that teenagers are more willing to share their mental-health concerns, and even seek help, than they were decades ago, and that there’s much more openness and acceptance around these conversations.

As Tiffany Rufino, senior manager of the Youth Mental Health Coalition, a PHIWM program, explains in the article, “they’re using the resources that we’re putting forth, and they are vocal and open to talking about challenges that they’re facing. They are also really excited about sharing information with the community.”

At a time when young people are still dealing with long-term impacts from the pandemic years, that’s a heartening trend. So let’s keep the conversation going.