January 11, 2022

Good morning, MindSite News readers. Climate-related despair isn’t a diagnosable condition, but it does have a name: “eco-anxiety.” Today, with a new MindSite News Original, we bring you a look at an existential issue for the world (and especially for members of Gen Z): Is the fate of our planet too uncertain to bring children into it? We also bring you stories from around the web about efforts to address mental health problems in the schools of Charlotte, North Carolina, and calls for an overhaul of the conservatorship system that leaves many people with mental illness feeling like prisoners. Plus: Welshmen walking for mental health.

Eco-Anxiety: The Real Tsunami of Climate Change 

“We cannot imagine bringing a child into this world knowing the scary and catastrophic future this child would have.” So says 31-year-old Kiersten Little. She is not alone: 56% of 16-to-25-year-olds believe “humanity is doomed,” a 2021 survey of 10,000 youth  in The Lancet found. Adults are alarmed as well: Over half admitted to being “somewhat” or “extremely anxious” about the impact of climate change on their own mental health in a 2020 poll by the American Psychiatric Association. Small wonder Gen Z couples like Little and her husband are deciding not to have children in a world increasingly threatened by global warming. Diana Kapp reports.

Prevent violence at school by dealing with students’ mental health: Experts

The first three months of the school year haven’t been easy for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, where 23 guns were found and fights are taking place at an alarming pace, according to the Charlotte Observer. Health professionals blame social isolation from the pandemic, emotions triggered by social media and financial stress on families. Their advice to parents: Pay attention. If you notice changes in kids’ emotions, declining academic performance, increasing social media intake – or if they seem to be withdrawing – reach out to a mental health professional. 

“If parents have concerns, it’s not a bad idea for them to search their children’s backpacks to make sure they’re not going to school with things they’re not supposed to,” said Melissa Reeves, a senior adviser for Safe and Sound Schools and former president of the National Association of School Psychologists. “We need parents to stay engaged, stay aware and reach out if they need help because they may be saving their child’s life and the lives of many others.”

Welshmen walk and talk for mental health

Since last fall, 250 men from Newtown have participated in seven walks with the purpose of giving guys a chance to talk about mental health struggles and prevent suicides. The “hour-long walks take place fortnightly on a Friday evening in Newtown where men can feel they can talk with people about life’s struggles,” according to County Times, a Wales newsweekly. “I can’t bring back lads who are no longer sadly with us but I promise I will do everything in my power and more to prevent any more families suffering heartbreak,” organizer Andrew Coppin told the newspaper. The group, with the matter-of-fact name Men Walking and Talking, is set to expand soon to Llanidloes and Welshpool, two other Welsh towns.

Guardianship system needs an overhaul, disability attorneys say

People with severe mental illness, cognitive disabilities and the elderly often get placed into guardianships, giving a court-appointed guardian authority over their property and life decisions. But – like Britney Spears – some people are challenging this arrangement, and there’s a nationwide move to loosen restrictions that many say are imposed too freely and too strictly, according to a story by National Public Radio. “We’re talking about decisions about where to live, whether to get married, where to work, what medical care to receive, what to do with their money,” said Justin Schrock, an attorney with Indiana Disability Rights. “They really do lose all of their most fundamental basic rights.” 

An estimated 1.3 million people live under guardianship, also called conservatorships in some states. Proposed reforms would shift the system towards less restrictive options by providing a support team of family, friends and social workers to help guide a person in decision-making, something that has been passed in at least 11 states. But even where reforms have occurred, some courts have ignored them, prompting advocates to call for better education of judges and attorneys.

Louisiana prison conditions causing mental illness, lawsuit charges

A class-action lawsuit brought to trial this week charges that a Louisiana prison subjected prisoners to “inhumane” solitary confinement, physical and verbal abuse and inadequate care, according to The Lens, a digital publication in New Orleans. Filed in 2018, the lawsuit alleges that the correctional center has routinely failed to screen, assess and treat inmates for mental illness and keeps prisoners in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for months at a time.“These extreme conditions create mental illness, and…acts of self-harm,” attorneys wrote in the complaint. Lawyers for the David Wade Correctional Center say the prison “has a robust system,” including a psychiatrist and mental health staff to diagnose and treat mental illness, “and appropriately uses restrictive housing to deliver safety to the public, correctional staff, and the other offenders.” A hunger strike by the detention centers’ prisoners in 2021 drew attention to the lack of mental health care and the high number of prisoners on suicide watch.

In other news:

Status Code 14 is the emergency services code that indicates a police officer in the United Kingdom needs help or advice. A group of current and former police officers have adopted the name for their team, which will participate in a 3,000 mile rowing competition across the Atlantic to raise mental health and cancer awareness among first responders. Even though their work is filled with high-stress events, team member and former police officer Steve Dredge explains, “Men especially are rubbish at asking for help.”

A record number of anti-transgender laws are under consideration in different states and the debates are having a negative effect on the mental health of transgender youth, Axios reports. The Trevor Project, a nonprofit providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth commissioned the poll of 820 LGBTQ youth aged 13 to 24 and two-thirds felt their mental health was being undermined. Bills in six states would restrict trans and non-binary youth from playing sports. Three states “would ban doctors for providing best practice health care for trans and non-binary youth.” 

Are messages more palatable if they come from an animated fox or a bulldog singing country ballads? STAT News reports that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been using these unorthodox messengers in a series of amusing videos in the hopes of elevating information about dangerous products above the onslaught of information that consumers contend with. 

Check out all of our stories at mindsitenews.org. And please share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues.

Thanks for reading,

The MindSite News Team

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