A Response to the President's Call to Support Public Mental Health

Abstract

In his 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden outlined an ambitious plan for supporting public mental health in the U.S., which he said faces an unprecedented mental health crisis.1 To support that claim, he cited statistics showing that during the peak of the pandemic, nearly 40% of Americans experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression, whereas access to mental health treatment remains poor, particularly for African American and Latino individuals. He also cited emerging evidence of the harms of social media use on the mental health of adolescents and young adults, echoing recent comments from the Surgeon General.