Is there a Teen mental Health Crisis as alleged by the New York Times? The Times’s series of articles, the first titled "It's Life or Death: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens," has been picked up by many other newspapers and been featured on television. Bill Resnick talks to his Old Mole comrade, Jan Haaken, a psychologist and for many years the director of the Portland State University Psychology Department's counselling unit. Jan's three books include "Psychology, Politics, and PTSD.” She counters the Times’s story, contending that teens are doing better than ever on many measures, that suicides are not increasing, and the actual troubles for teens are rooted in the in the world created by our current social and political arrangements, that create precarious lives and the grave threat of climate collapse. These have aggravated teen difficulties that the teens themselves are seeking to deal with.
Image by Vicky Scott—Ikon Images
- KBOO