The Mental Health Epidemic of '23

Calla Braiker, Class IV; Lila Butterworth, Class IV; and Taliah Wasserman, Class IV

Photo Credit: Jackson Joyce, NBC News

Disclaimer: TBLS counselors and our social worker Mr. Schultz, are available to all TBLS students should they need support, please do not hesitate to contact them if you need help.

59.8% of American youth with depression do not receive treatment. This means more than half of American teens struggling with depression are not obtaining needed services.

In March 2020, as COVID-19 began to spread rapidly around the world, Americans all across the country, specifically teenagers, began facing a crisis of their own. However, two years later, as surges of the virus slow and become less devastating, the mental health crisis remains at an all-time high, with many still struggling. Every single day. A battle that is invisible to many eyes. While the pandemic and lockdown undoubtedly contributed to the ever-growing mental health crisis, it’s an issue that existed even before the media put a spotlight on it. It’s an issue that has been present for many years in schools across the country, including Brooklyn Latin.

Going into 2023, over 1 in 10 youths in the United States are experiencing depression that is severely impairing their ability to function at school or work, at home with family, or in their social life, Mental Health America has found. This is more than just a cold statistic, many TBLS discipuli are affected. We spoke to one of our school's guidance counselors, Ms. Ossorio, and our school's social worker, Mr. Shultz to get an insider's perspective on how they see the mental health crisis affecting our school.

“It feels like almost every student at TBLS has been impacted in some way, whether it is emotionally, socially, or academically,” said Ms. Ossorio, “Students who once upon a time had no to very little issues, seem to be struggling for the first time in their lives and not having the tools to cope with it.”

This matches the sudden increase in news coverage surrounding teen mental health. Mr. Schultz commented that, “During the pandemic, it (mental health) sort of received some attention from people outside of, of this bubble outside of the people who were typically clued into these types of things.” He added that "people who didn't think much about teen mental health before are really aware of it now.”

This escalation in media attention is not without good reason. The pandemic played a part in furthering the mental health epidemic, and that is evident in TBLS. Ms. Ossorio disclosed that, “Students who have struggled in the past have either been resilient throughout this time, or fallen deeper into any struggles they had pre-pandemic. I have noticed an uptick in students who disclose feeling depressed or anxious. I have also noticed an uptick in ideation about self harm.”

However, Mr. Schultz shared that he was happily surprised by the eagerness with which TBLS discipuli returned to in-person school.

“It seemed like when we opened our doors, people were very excited to be here, very excited to be with their friends, very excited just to connect with other people and engage with classroom material like in person,” he said.

Although the return to in-person school allowed schools to provide students with more mental health support, Ossorio still expressed concern with how mental health is currently dealt with in schools throughout the country,

“Unfortunately, I believe it's going to take a massive overhaul on how we as a country do school to fix these issues. I don't think we can fix these new issues by repeating the same thing we have been doing for the past 30+ years," she said, "we need to meet the needs of our students based on today, not what was happening pre-pandemic.”

Both Schultz and Ossorio, though admitting that there is still room to grow, praised TBLS for their student support, throughout and after the pandemic.

“From my perspective it feels like we have reduced the stigma around mental health issues, and it's not so taboo to talk about them,” Schultz vocalized. He also discussed a program TBLS initiated during remote learning called DWT, which stands for “Discovery Wellness Team.” This consisted of TBLS staff, teachers, social workers, admin, etc, reaching out to all discipuli and making sure they were safe and getting the support they needed, academically and emotionally. Ossorio also voiced that, “TBLS is great at making sure students know that mental health is something that is real and should be talked about openly in our community,” and she believes that, “TBLS does their best with the limits they have in addressing these issues within the confines of our community.”

Kids around the world are still struggling with the transition from online to in-person learning, which continues to be a factor in their mental health. As this crisis goes on, we hope that schools will increasingly implement programs and policies that create supportive and helpful communities.