Mental Health

Our country is in a mental health crisis. Suicide rates have dramatically increased in both our youth and our older adult population.

Our kids are experiencing higher rates of anxiety and depression. Why? According to Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, the shift from the physical world to the virtual world of social media has had a catastrophic impact on mental health, especially for our younger kids who are receiving smart phones at earlier and earlier ages.

Mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are also on the rise. Mental illness tends to emerge in our late teens or early twenties. It can be triggered by stressful events, and our kids’ generation is subject to high levels of stress, from the social isolation of the pandemic to the stress of college to the pressures of the competitive job market.

Since marijuana is now legal, people assume it is not dangerous. This is untrue however, especially for our youth. Legalizing pot has actually made it MORE dangerous as growers strive to compete by creating stronger strains or attempt to create it synthetically to meet demand. Today’s pot is about 30% stronger than in the old days and it’s creating psychosis in young adults. Psychiatric hospitals like UCLA claim they are seeing a tremendous increase in substance-related psychosis admissions in young adults. Marijuana can also trigger longer-term schizophrenia. For this reason I appose “pot shops” in Manhattan Beach.

The pandemic was especially hard on our seniors, leading to loneliness and isolation, and some are still finding their way back and need our support.

Mental healthcare is a luxury in this country. Many mental health providers don’t even take insurance and the huge out-of-pocket costs can prevent people from receiving care. I will work together with MBUSD to provide mental health support and implement policies such as “QPR: Question, Persuade, Refer” to recognize the signs that people are struggling and get them help.