Horizon Foundation and Howard County are responding to mental health concerns in new ways

A few months ago, we asked partners and friends to share the mental health issues they saw impacting our Howard County community. Their responses spoke to a staggering need. Here are some of the things we heard:

• Nationally, 66% of high school athletes have experienced depression and anxiety due to COVID-19 and the cancellation of their sports and activities, an impact that hits close to home for many of our Howard County youth.
• Even as crimes against Asian Americans have risen by 164% across the country over the past year, many people — particularly older members of the community — still struggle to openly discuss mental health and the traumatic toll this environment can take.
• A Howard County teacher is so worried about her students’ stress and anxiety, she developed her own in-class strategies to support their needs.
• Almost half of the autistic adults who attempt suicide in the U.S. haven’t been diagnosed with depression. Given how many families move to Howard County for its early intervention services and inclusive school system, the intersections between autism and mental health are a pressing concern.
• Explicit and implicit biases are preventing Black girls from owning their gifts and talents, and their inability to ignite their natural “Black Girl Magic” has devastating consequences at every developmental stage.

These concerns fueled the lineup of last month’s Horizon Foundation Mental Health Film Festival. What we saw in the films and heard in the discussions that followed spoke not just to the need to openly address mental health challenges in Howard County, but also to the compassion and drive of our neighbors, including the 1,200 people who attended the event.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: The Baltimore Sun