Mental Health Issues on the Rise
After 9/11, I remember hearing a news report that said over the following five years, the US would see a sharp rise in mental health issues and an increased need for access to treatment. During that time, the topic slowly crept into the news. Ten years later, the pandemic and athletes’ mental health advocacy created a new and bigger wave of reporting on the topic.
A Focus on Treatment
These media reports focused on the treatment of mental illness. In addition, because of the increased incidence of mental health issues, getting treatment has become both difficult and expensive.
A Critical Shortage of Available Treatment
In an article on children’s mental health, best-selling author Judith Warner calls the shortage of available treatment a “supply-chain [issue].” Importantly, even before the pandemic, says Warner, there was an “obscene shortage” of mental health practitioners. And, she adds, issues caused by the pandemic “multiplied the problem exponentially.”
Building Skills to Address the Treatment Shortage
Along with this extreme shortage of care, Warner found how, after frustration with the current access to treatment system, “[a] growing number of frustrated practitioners and researchers”… had begun to create “new approaches.” These programs focused on prevention. States Warner,
“The common element, in all the new programs is a focus on skills — tools and techniques, validated by decades of science, which build resilience and enhance mental health. Skills that help kids be mindful of their feelings. Skills that enable them to calm themselves and pause to think before acting or speaking. Skills that empower them to act — in positive ways — when they’re feeling down, anxious, or angry, or overwhelmed. And skills that help them understand other people’s perspectives, and communicate their own needs, feelings and perceptions in ways that are both more thoughtful of others and more likely to be effective.”
Acquiring Skills is Not Always Easy
Skills help combat mental health issues. Moreover, they often go unpracticed.
This is due to a variety of reasons including the inability for people to see an immediate benefit, financial barriers, limited access to resources, a lack of support systems and a lack of the awareness of prevention services
Addressing Barriers to Skill Building
aws Studios.art seeks to address barriers to social and emotional learning. Building mental health with the Studios is not only easy but also affordable. And, in regard to addressing the lack of support systems, phearnik!® is, in essence, designed to be a personal safety net.
portable support system
Because it’s small and meant for travel, the plush acts as a portable support system. The idea is to have phearnik!® accessible whenever and wherever one might experience irrational fear and anxiety. Its presence reminds us to keep our fears small and not let them get big where they take control and make us freeze. See more about the phearnik!® support system here.
In Summary…
Because of increased incidences of mental health issues and a shortage of treatment, social emotional learning provides an effective alternative. With more prevention and skill building, the need for treatment subsides.
But providing more skill building opportunities is not enough. There are barriers people experience to their social and emotional learning. These barriers include financial, access, and awareness limitations.
To address this issue…
The aws Studios.art brand works to break down some of the barriers to skill building. Through the Studios, I provide resources that offer immediate benefit and are low cost and often free. And, if someone lacks a support system for practicing skills, phearnik! is just the thing. The plush acts as a portable personal guide and safety net.
What About You?
Have you experienced an inability to access mental health treatment? What do you think about skill building? Is this something that comes easy for you or is it difficult to practice? Do you have a support system in place to help with your social and emotional learning? What do you think of the phearnik!® plush as a support system? Let us know in the Comments.
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