Importantly, whenever I see news or articles about the decline of mental health or the increase in mental health issues, I always want to ask, “but how are their mental health skills building? Do they have the skills needed to strengthen their social and emotional health? In addition, did they learn these skills but never or rarely practice them? Or did they have these skills, and they just weren’t enough?”

Also, recently, the WBUR radio show “On Point” rebroadcast a program they had done early last year about the decline of mental health in teen girls (based on results from the CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey). Nothing was mentioned about skills.

This is the thing I metaphorically “shout from the rooftops,” my beef, my concern, my platform. It’s not a criticism of the treatment for mental illness, mental health counseling or therapy, etc. as these are needed and necessary as “down-stream” assistance. It is my evergreen, “up-stream” and, hopefully, inspiring probe – to ask, wonder, inquire and think about – the state of mental health skills in both kids and adults. In articles and programs like the WBUR broadcast, I just don’t hear much, if anything, about mental health skill building.