Youth Mental Health in the Digital Age
Young people are experiencing an acute mental health crisis, with a surge in youth anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders in that last decade that was exacerbated by the pandemic. Some experts have implicated the rise in social media as a major culprit driving the youth mental health crisis. At the same time, mental health innovators and funders are exploring creative ways to leverage digital platforms and tools to address the crisis and promote connectedness and wellbeing among youth. This conversation explored the role of social media and digital technologies in the current youth mental health crisis. How can emerging technologies be part of a supportive ecosystem that lets youth lead the way toward different digital futures? How must the dominant digital platforms be reformed in order to reduce the harms to youth mental health – and how might those reforms be achieved? What is the role of philanthropy and the social sector can in addressing the crisis?
The conversation featured David Ball, Global Head of SecondMuse’s Health and Social Tech portfolio, Pooja Mehta, senior policy associate at Inseparable, and Deepti Doshi Co-Director at New_Public, in discussion with Shelley Whelpton, Senior Managing Director at Arabella Advisors.
