I came across an interesting feed on social media the other day. It happened to be from Sesame Street’s Elmo, who was my son’s second favorite character from childhood. In case you are interested, Po (the red one) from Teletubbies fame was his all-time favorite. And just to be fair, and to give equal airtime to my other child, Caillou, was my daughter’s favorite childhood television character before she graduated to SpongeBob, who remains her favorite to this day. Enough of me oversharing and let’s get back to the message of the day with Elmo.
The aforementioned post by Elmo caused quite a stir. If you haven’t seen it, it is a simple message on X with his picture with the following caption:
“Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”
This single post was viewed by over 140 million people and over 14,000 people actually responded and over 120K liked the post. Remarkable numbers for a fictitious character.
As I’m told, this post was simply a wellness check and it was an inquiry how the public is holding up. The consensus from this post was that Elmo was asking the compassionate query about the state of everyone’s mental health. And what a response it generated.
I’m thrilled that we are having an honest and open discussion about mental health, even though we needed unconventional means to crack open this door. As an overall thesis, we as a society, don’t spend enough time, money, or effort discussing, diagnosing or treating mental health issues, and that has to change.
The tragic truth is many of us grew up in an age where issues of mental health were taboo and forbidden terrain for discussion. Even though many of us knew family members with serious issues and challenges, we were not encouraged by society to face this medical issue. Back in the day, when dealing with obvious physical limitations or challenges, open discussion was welcome, yet acknowledging a mental wellness was not. Those who suffered from mental issues were either openly ridiculed or hidden from our communities.
In my hometown, during the 1960’s, we housed one of the largest mental health facilities in the State. The hospital was given the name Overbrook and we were warned not to venture anywhere near the grounds. This isolation was indicative of the times, and only the most extreme cases were given residency in the Fairview Avenue buildings.
In the last decade or so, this aged and decrepit structure was eliminated and Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., replaced it with a state of the art first class facility with tremendous resources and amazing services for those in need. Thankfully, some of our leaders are taking the lead in addressing this vexing social and medical issue.
I remember as a child, many other students with mental challenges that were mainstreamed in our schools with no resources or support for their obvious needs. I’m not a social or medical scientist, but I’m convinced that this epic and generational failure caused decades of frustration and lasting neglect that continues to have ramifications. And it is time to learn from past mistakes and face the music.
Even though the numbers don’t tell the entire story, it is only recently that this topic of mental wellness is receiving some airtime that is proportionate to the actual subject matter. In 1988, the United States spent $37 billion on mental health and in 2020 that number increased to $280 billion. A quarter of that money was under the auspices of Medicaid – more direct funding is needed.
Covid brought about many issues and one that surfaced was mental wellness and because of it we are finally talking about it. It is long overdue and it is time for more than just a discussion. It is time for action. Let’s take the cue from Elmo and ask our friends, family members, and work colleagues, how is everybody doing?
We need to look for obvious clues, have open discussions, and encourage those in need to get dignified assistance. To our political leaders, it is time to find the space, compassion, and money to address this long overlooked illness.