Last month, Bishop Guertin High School hosted a community forum on mental health that was recorded on their YouTube channel. We were honored to partner with Bishop Guertin and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health on this project.
Here is some of the feedback we received:
I was grateful for the multidisciplinary approach…
I loved the live panel…
I was moved to tears by Judge Broderick (retired Chief Justice of the N.H. Supreme Court John Broderick, who now works for Dartmouth-Hitchcock and speaks about mental health awareness all over New England)…
I’m really worried about going back to school and loved the specific ideas/suggestions…
I felt informed about mental health.
We felt more comfortable talking about mental health…
We had no idea it was that widespread…
We learned that assuming is not helpful when it comes to assessing our kids’ mental health status….
Although most kids do not have a diagnosable mental illness, many, many kids are not mentally well, either: a good number are anxious and depressed, and the data that is now coming in on the impacts of COVID have shown that things have gotten significantly worse.
Doing a Forum in Your Community
What we hear all the time is people know there’s a problem, but they don’t know where to start in order to fix it. A community forum might be a great first step. Using people in your community, you can discuss mental health in a safe, constructive way with people who know and are known and trusted in your town or city.
You don’t have to have as many speakers as we did—have as many speakers and/or panelists as makes sense for your community. The important thing is to start the discussion. One thing you should plan is how you’re going to continue the discussion. Whether you have another panel discussion, follow it up with Zoom calls, or whatever, just make sure you provide an avenue to build on what’s started with the forum.
We are happy to help you with your forum. Here is more information, or feel free to contact us.