opinion
Emotional Health an Issue
for Everyone
BY PAULA GOLDSTEIN
Nuthawut Somsuk / iStock / Getty Images Plus
W hen COVID hit in 2020, the collective trauma
over this mysterious illness led to a rise in
what was already a serious challenge for all of us
and our families, namely, our mental health.

Our minds needed to grapple with the ongoing
news reports of people getting sick and dying with
no treatment forthcoming for a signifi cant amount of
time. For those who had experienced signifi cant trau-
mas at other times in their lives, the pandemic only
served as a trigger for retraumatization, something
that mental health professionals are all too familiar
with. What happens to a person who has had continu-
ous mental health challenges, perhaps for months
or years and then has to absorb more contributors
to overall mental well-being such as disruption
in school schedules, remote working, the end of
after-school activities and social opportunities, not
to mention interruptions in attending college, not
being able to see elderly parents, and the closing
of one’s business since no one is going out of their
homes. What we see is exactly what is happening in
our community today — a fl ooded mental health
system with not enough clinicians in the pipeline
to supply the mental health care that is needed.

Looking back, prepandemic we were already
in a mental health crisis. The ability to fi nd an
aff ordable therapist, covered by insurance was
almost nonexistent. If a person had the resources
to pay for services “out of pocket” then they stood
a chance of being seen.

When you add children and teens to the mix,
the number of available and skilled therapists
drops dramatically. We know from more recent
statistics that one in six children ages 5-16 are
likely to have a mental health problem. We also
know that in a classroom of 30 kids, fi ve will be
struggling with mental health challenges.

For parents who were struggling to work
remotely during the pandemic while supervising
their children as they learned on Zoom, if they did
not already have existing struggles with anxiety,
depression or other disorders, they probably did
due to the stress that families were experiencing
for months and months.

We are seeing the aftermath of this chaos now
and children and adults alike are fi nding them-
selves on waiting lists to see a therapist. For
some, the wait is not comfortable, but they can
manage until the appointment comes through.

For others, this phenomenon is more concerning
and dangerous as the only other choice for a per-
son who is having a signifi cant mental health crisis
is a visit to the emergency room of a hospital to
supply stabilization until a therapist can be seen.

One positive thing that came out of the pandemic
was the ability for many young people to begin to
open and show their vulnerability in relation to their
own mental health through social media outlets.

Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook
gave rise to many sharing their struggles openly
and encouraging others who were experiencing
similar challenges to seek help. This served as a
major contributor to cutting stigma, which is its own
obstacle for some in need of mental health care.

The primary issue is that there simply is not
enough mental health care in most communities.

For providers, the amount of reimbursement from
insurance companies pales in relation to the
amount of time spent with an individual in care
causing many practitioners to only accept private
pay, eliminating the option to be seen for so many.

Even if one can be seen by paying out of pocket,
the waiting lists are long. Can someone delay a
full-blown emotional crisis until they are able to
get an appointment — most likely not.

Communities need to fi nd ways to spread the
support to many so that a village model can exist
is caring for those who need mental health sup-
port. More training in mental health for primary
care physicians, nurses, teachers, camp counsel-
ors, day care centers and YMCAs is needed to
be able to sustain crises until more resources are
available. We have long surpassed the time when only
a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker can
engage with someone who has mental health
challenges. Imagine if a synagogue community,
rabbi, educators and congregants had mental
health fi rst aid training and began to think diff er-
ently about off ering support to its members who
were struggling.

And what if, when a teen went to school, teach-
ers and students were more aware of signs of
mental health crisis and had the ability to address
them in a normative day-to-day way? Off ering
education to preschool children around emotional
well being and universalizing mental health chal-
lenges to everyone at one point or another could
change the dialogue in classrooms, enabling
educators and kids alike to supply support and
guidance in an integrated way.

Diff erent times call for diff erent measures and
we are defi nitely in those times now. Emotional
health is an everyone issue — imagine embracing
it as just that and creating a language by which
institutions and communities work to support
each other. JE
Paula Goldstein is the CEO of Jewish Family and
Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia.

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