"The Mental Health Crisis" ...Crisis
The kids are not wrong.
1This article very frankly discusses suicide, loss, statistics, and sadness. You have been forewarned. The stats are from CDC, for the most part.
Did you know we have a mental health crisis? Of course, you did. Because nobody can shut up about it, it doesn't matter how little you know. It doesn't matter how much you know. Everyone’s got an opinion. Unlike most other opinions about problems that require doctoral-level training to understand, that opinion is not subjected to the same level of scrutiny; all opinions are the same.
If that sounds snarky, it is. I'm doing it to make a point: I don't believe that the dismay of the average citizen, enraged at what they see, is any less accurate than that of professionals or pundits.
We should probably define what we mean by “crisis.”
I'm also going to introduce myself as your narrator. My name is Owen Scott Muir, MD, And I am a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist. I am also a health technology enthusiast, sometimes a citizen journalist, and…