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Dear Fellow Vermonter,
It is no secret. This country is facing a mental health crisis which is especially severe among young people. Tragically, we are seeing more and more of our youth dealing with depression, anxiety, anorexia, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, and other problems. While this has been a crisis for a number of years, it has been exacerbated by the isolation and school disruption caused by the pandemic. It has also been affected by the widespread use of social media.
As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I will do my best to address this crisis. Among many other actions, we need to greatly expand our mental health care workforce so that any young person, or anyone else, can get the help and counseling they need regardless of their income. We also need to do a much better job in understanding the root causes of the mental health crisis and invest heavily in prevention as well as treatment.
Recently, I sat down and discussed these issues with the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, the chief medical officer for the United States. In my view, Dr. Murthy is doing an outstanding job educating the American people about the mental health situation and offering concrete solutions. I hope you will watch the livestream below and hear what the Surgeon General had to say.
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