Student Mental Health Week: Night 1 - "Anxious Nation": Documentary Explores Epidemic of Anxiety Among Children and Teens

MetroFocus: The Podcast

More than one in three high school students reports feeling persistent hopelessness - a 40% increase since 2009, and suicide has become the second leading cause of death for teens aged 15 to 19. While today’s students are facing unprecedented challenges in the realm of mental health, there are resources available to help families, students, and educators confront this crisis. Here at The WNET Group, we are committed to being part of the solution for our community. That’s why we are pleased to announce a new online toolkit - specifically designed for New York educators - available free on PBS LearningMedia, a dynamic website that offers educators access to thousands of resources from pbs stations and partners. All this week, MetroFocus will bring you stories on mental health from a variety of perspectives. We'll hear families, students, and doctors discuss this urgent issue and explore emerging solutions. Starting tonight, we look at the impact of anxiety on children and teens. American adolescence is undergoing a drastic change. Three decades ago, the gravest public health threats to teenagers in the United States came from binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy and smoking. These have since fallen sharply, replaced by a new public health concern: soaring rates of mental health disorders. A new documentary, “Anxious Nation” unfolds the epidemic of anxiety in America and explores why we are such an anxious nation. The project was born in 2018, when producer/co-director and writer Laura Morton felt overwhelmed and isolated trying to understand her daughter Sevey’s extreme anxiety. With a camera in hand, Laura and her team traveled the country talking to parents, kids, and experts about their experiences with anxiety and what they were doing to manage it. In 2021, which saw our families through the most intense time of COVID and how the pandemic impacted their already fragile state, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth joined the project to co-direct. Laura, Vanessa and Sevey join MetroFocus to discuss the film and how the crisis of anxiety and mental health in America is specifically impacting kids and their families.