Goldie Hawn says we've 'failed' children during COVID-19
Goldie Hawn is sharing her thoughts on how society has "failed" the younger generations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a recent op-ed for USA Today, the 76-year-old addressed the toll the pandemic has taken on children's mental health. Hawn called the ongoing pandemic a "national trauma" and compared the "heightened terror" the public currently feels to the "existential dread" felt following the Cold War and witnessing the Challenger disaster in 1986, as well as to 9/11.
"The COVID era has changed our children’s lives in far more real, tangible ways — social distancing, school closures, daily mask use," she wrote. “Kids are afraid of people, spaces, even the air around them — a level of constant fear not seen in decades."
Hawn noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. surgeon general and the American Academy of Pediatrics “agree that the state of our children’s mental health is now at the level of a national emergency.”
“This tells us that as a nation, we have failed our children,” she stated. “The few federal and state dollars that get directed to youth 'mental health' invariably end up being earmarked for addiction and 'crisis care,' addressing only the most severe disorders. There are modest funds once a kid ends up in a hospital. But what about before?”
Hawn, who serves as the CEO for the children's mental health organization MindUP for Life, says the implications of COVID-19 on children's mental health could put future strain on healthcare systems. The actress advocated for more funding on "research, more preventative care and more early intervention" to help children before they enter adulthood.
“If we get it right,” she wrote, “today’s kids could emerge as the strongest generation America has ever produced."
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