CEO Kelsey Louie's Mental Health Op-Ed Featured in NYN Media
CEO Kelsey Louie publishes an opinion piece in City & State NY's New York Nonprofit Media focusing on the severity of the youth mental health crisis in New York City.
We're proud to share Door CEO Kelsey Louie's new opinion piece published in City & State NY's New York Nonprofit Media, which focuses on the severity of the youth mental health crisis, with acute depression and other serious conditions rising to alarming and unprecedented levels in New York City and across the country. This is now being further exacerbated by a second, equally dire crisis—the shortage of trained, culturally competent mental health practitioners. The op-ed underscores the significance of this timely issue, coining it the “dual mental health crisis” and providing practical societal calls-to-action across multiple sectors. Solutions include dismantling stigma around mental health care, particularly for LGBTQIA+ youth and young people of color, and investing in critical field-wide systemic changes that prioritize the long-term wellbeing of our youth.
"We hear a lot about youth mental health these days. The fact that poor mental health is a complex, silent killer crippling our young people is well documented. That it has reached epidemic levels in scope and severity isn’t news either. But because mental health signs are highly individual and nuanced, it’s easy to shelve them in favor of less complicated issues. Sometimes we need a concrete metaphor to focus our attention on a crisis—especially when we face so many crises every day....
At The Door—the multi-service youth development organization that I run—we see the magnitude of this crisis with our own eyes. While the statistics are staggering, we also recognize that behind each of these numbers is a human being with hopes, dreams, and needs...."
—Kelsey Louie, CEO, on the youth mental health crisis in New York City
Read the full article here.
At The Door, we remain vigilant about ensuring that every young person has access to the mental health care they need, regardless of their background or economic status. Click here to learn more about our Counseling Center and other mental health services.