Working Together to Build a Better Tomorrow

Understanding the Past:

Prior to the pandemic, many were beginning to question whether or not the US is doing enough to prevent, track, and mitigate child neglect and abuse throughout the United States. Organizations such as Childhelp? have been leading the charge for change for over six decades; noting that "The United States has one of the worst records among industrialized nations -losing an average between four and seven children per day."

The Landscape of Today:

As the pandemic wears on, many media outlets and elected leaders are sensationalizing the ongoing trappings of an increased mental health risk from the COVID-19 pandemic on our children's mental health while offering few multifaceted solutions. Instead of recognizing all the risk factors and the multiple potential avenues for a remission or even a reduction in the frequency of adverse childhood experiences, many of these influencers seek only to define the responsibilities of our schools in both prevention and in the allocation of past responsibility for the repercussions of all of yesterday's unmet mental health challenges. Summarily assigning the blame for our dysfunctional mental healthcare system and decades of mental healthcare inequity to public education's response to a novel virus and global pandemic.

Facts and Future Outcomes:

The facts are clear; the research is consistent. Now we as a nation must decide whether to accept and take responsibility for our own neglect or continue playing the blame game and allowing media hype and misinformation to hamper a meaningful and sustainable response to an ongoing and growing threat to our children.

The reality we now face is that in our failing, as a nation, to respond and provide for the basic mental health needs of the most vulnerable members of America's society (including all the Americans out there whose potential is still being limited by the influence of adverse childhood experiences), we are also acknowledging, as a nation, our concession to our current legacy of being the wealthiest nation on this planet while also having the highest levels of child abuse and neglect.

By failing to act, we are leaving behind a legacy of neglect.

Likewise, we are passing down a mindset of reluctance and acceptance. Reinforcing the message of learned helplessness stating that even after nearly six decades of awareness campaigns, as a society, we have done very little to slow the exponential growth of child abuse and neglect. We have failed to make sustainable gains on a societal challenge capable of being the center attraction of media and political blame games, yet somehow the systemic solutions and the funding required to change course remains allusive.

Should America's legacy of child abuse go unchallenged and unmitigated, both for past and future generations, we will be yielding a rare opportunity to seize the reins of fate and to modify our nation's legacy of decades of abuse. We will be, once again, acquiescing to a future where Americans will continue to be at a heightened risk of dying young, encounter an already overburdened healthcare system with increasing rates of autoimmune diseases, and limit our potential workforce talent pool through the exclusion of far too many Americans who have yet to receive help and who continue to struggle with the wounds of adverse childhood experiences.

A future not of their own making, but one built by a past society who failed to protect them as children and continued to neglect their mental health needs as they became adults. -regardless of what that past society's intentions or awareness may have been at the time.

Other Options??

Or, we can ask ourselves how each and every one of us can be part of the solution.

Finding a Place to Start:

As our leaders attempt to unravel this complex problem, we as educators, community members, influencers, and leaders can help by simply keeping the conversation focused and supporting our leaders' efforts to allocate funding and seek authentic solutions. By engaging in accurate and credible debates like those featured on Kialo's student-led debate platform, we too can become part of the solution and help others struggling with questions and claims like: "School is bad for your mental health,"

While many of us might find these types of questions to be inflammatory and not worthy of debate, we should weigh our objections with compassion and understanding. Accepting that often, at the heart of these discussions are the unmet needs of children. No matter what role we played in the past, we have the opportunity now to help build a better future today and combat the sea of misinformation shaping our current response. Through our engagement in discussions, we are acknowledging why our young people are asking these questions, the confusing and complex landscape they are facing, and how we can shape awareness today while working together to build responsive and culturally aware solutions able to meet the challenges faced by all those who continue to be impacted by yesterday's neglect.

A Path Forward

So, what advice would you offer to future generations of young adults seeking solutions while caught in an ever-going cycle of generational trauma and media hype? As Bernard of Chartres depicted in his 12th-century metaphor of a dwarf standing on the shoulder of giants, we can assist future generations by empowering them to stand on our shoulders, learn from our failures, and build on our successes. Sending the message to future generations that they are not alone in their struggle; they are valuable members of a nation seeking to rise up from the ashes of a pandemic and build a better more equitable tomorrow.