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Courtesy of Howard Foreman
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Som, MD ’03 arrived in New Haven Thursday for an 18-hour visit focused on the youth mental health crisis and other pressing public health issues.
Murthy spoke to audiences at the School of Law, School of Public Health and School of Management. He later led a panel discussion and interactive exercise at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), where he was mentored by Gov. Ned Lamont SOM ’80 and alumni of the University of New Haven, Yale, SCSU and Gateway Community College.
Murthy also addressed the first class, “Health Economics and Public Policy,” taught by Howard Foreman, director of the Med/MBA program, and met with Mayor Justin Elicker ENV, SOM ’10. Surgeon General Marty took time out to explore New Haven and stocked up on his restaurant’s famous Lithuanian coffee cake at Claire’s Corner Copia on Friday morning, a favorite of Marty and his wife, Alice Chen ’01.
Murthy exhorted students to “‘Don’t stay in your ways.’ Because your line is much wider than others may appreciate.
Forman, Murthy’s longtime mentor, organized the surgeon general’s visit to New Haven. Murthy explained that he has been a frequent visitor to the Elm City in recent years, twice for Yale graduations and to visit with students, faculty and the Yale and New Haven community. For this visit, Foreman said, he and Murthy wanted to make sure they reached beyond the confines of the Yale community. Forman said engaging a wide range of constituencies, especially those not at Yale New Haven, is an important challenge.
“I especially wanted to come here to hear from the community and students about mental health and wellness and it’s great to see that people want to be part of the solution,” Murthy shared in an exclusive interview with News.
Mental health has been one of Murthy’s top priorities. While a student in medical school, he helped create “The Art of Healing,” a first-of-its-kind physician focused on coping with burnout, loss, and the art of healing.
As of March 2021, Murthy is serving a second term as Surgeon General, an office he held during the Obama administration, and in December 2021, Landmark advice On the youth mental health crisis and the covid-19 pandemic. This paper has been cited nationally, including by advocates for Connecticut’s latest mental health legislation package passed by the Connecticut General Assembly last spring.
Murthy says he’s proud of his mentor’s impact on mental health awareness, but there’s more to come.
“We have been very involved with members of the House of Representatives and members of the Senate on legislation that seeks to increase mental health services and increase our investment in prevention programs,” he said. “To tackle shame and stigma, we all need to push the conversation on mental health forward.”
According to Murthy, when he was a graduate student at Yale and an undergraduate at Harvard, mental health was still a challenge, though perhaps not on the levels seen today.
When Murthy was in medical and business school, he said that when people struggle with anxiety, depression and loneliness, “it shows more when you see it. [he] It was college.” Then people found it more difficult to discuss mental health openly than they do now.
“People didn’t talk about their struggles,” Murthy said. “It was very taboo, and while we talked a lot about how to deal with patients struggling with mental health and anxiety and depression, we didn’t talk much about ourselves.”
Murthy said he believes everyone, including college students, can help address the mental health crisis, and urged students to share their stories and challenge the stigma surrounding mental health, support and ensure “readily available, accessible” campus mental health services. Accountability for reporting mental health incidents.
Murthy said he was open to new ideas, including the formation of a youth advisory board, on the premise that “the more input from the youth, the better.”
“You don’t come up with a solution by putting a small group of managers in a room by yourself,” says Murthy. “We need input, and young people need to be at the table.”
Murthy said the youth mental health crisis has far-reaching effects beyond young people, including parents, employers and educational institutions.
“As a parent, there is no greater pain than seeing your child struggling and not being able to help,” Murthy said. “From an institutional perspective, if you don’t support student and staff safety, performance and productivity will suffer.”
Forman offered some possible explanations for the growing youth mental health crisis, one of which began even before the Covid-19 pandemic. The proliferation of social media and the weakening of family and social networks have contributed to loneliness, he said. However, he believes that perhaps more significant is society’s move to “achieve greater returns on intellectual capital and skills.”
In Forman’s view, people are leaving behind the rewards of “hard work” because of the rising premiums associated with post-secondary and post-graduate education. In that climate, he said, there is extraordinary pressure on students who now have high expectations and face existential crisis if they fail.
“This puts a lot of stress and pressure on individuals and one hopes that we start to think about how we deal with that,” Forman said.
some Professionals He argued that a new federal position, a “psychologist general” or “mental health czar,” was needed to address the mental health crisis. California In 2019, he established such a place.
Murthy isn’t convinced such a stance is necessary — in his view, continued prioritization of mental health by the public, Congress and the presidential administration will make the difference.
“In some ways, you can now call President Biden the mental health ‘leader’ for his administration,” he said. “This is the most alignment I’ve seen in my years in public health and that’s why I say to all the teams and people in the country that the windows of opportunity won’t be open forever and we have to use this time to make sure that. We’re going to take action as much as we can.”
Kaveh Khoshnood SPH ’89, GRD ’95, faculty director of the Yale Public Health Human Research Laboratory, attended Murthy’s Law School speech and praised his comments. But Khoshnod, whose research focus includes immigrant mental health, said Murthy and the federal government are eager to see more attention paid to the mental health of immigrants and migrant populations.
Kanhai Amin ’24, a student in Forman’s first graduate class, praised Murthy’s interaction with students and described him as “really curious” about student perspectives. However, Amin feels much less hopeful about a change in the federal government than Murthy. During Murthy’s visit, Amin lamented that the US government is aware of the many health problems it has covered up for decades, including tobacco addiction and food deserts, but has made no effort to improve public health.
Murty says students give me hope about the mental health crisis in the United States and the future of public health. Young people with or without medical degrees will lead the country to a healthy future.
But Foreman pointed out that not only the students give hope to Murthy, but the visits of role models like Murthy to the campus play an important role in motivating students and shaping their career aspirations. In a circle moment, Foreman fondly recalled Martin’s excitement 20 years ago when, as a student at Yale, he had the chance to meet the former surgeon general. David Sacher Satcher during his visit to the Yale campus.
49.5 percent of American teenagers He has a mental health problem.
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