Whether it's the stress of a pandemic, political unrest, climate change, social media, or any other variety of factors, young people in the U.S. are dealing with a rise in mental health issues. Given its increased prevalence, CVS and Aetna health are coming together on a new initiative.
Cara McNulty, president of behavioral health and mental wellbeing for CVS/Aetna, told KMOX more. She explained why things like anxiety and depression are hitting younger people especially hard.
"We as adults often can compartmentalize, because we have something to compare to. Maybe we have been through a hard time in our lives, or we've experienced job changes or moves," McNulty explained. "But our teens and our young people, they really have a hard time contextualizing because they haven't lived that long, they don't have much to compare to."
She added that young adulthood comes with a lot of new stressors — leaving home, going to college, starting a new job. But even those things, she pointed out, have been disrupted.
"There's this constant disruption. You overlay that with how our young adults and teens interact and how they are leaning into their being social, and it's all disrupted," she said. "So they didn't go on maybe their trips, or school or prom, or study abroad was canceled. Everything got disrupted. And then you look at how social media plays that impact — think of Instagram and Tiktok. What our young adults see is perfection."
To try and support young people, CVS is offering tips and tricks for parents on their website — plus, they have social workers and offer screening for depression and anxiety. McNulty explained more on Total Information AM:
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