From Oct. 26 to Oct. 28, Dartmouth and the United Nations Development Program hosted a three-day symposium on mental health titled “A Global Turning Point: Why Youth Well-Being Is in Crisis — and What We Must Do About It.” The event series, which was free and open to the public, included nature activities such as hikes to Gile Mountain and paddling on the Connecticut River, as well as eighteen panels featuring a wide range of speakers at the Hanover Inn and the Hopkins Center.
On the first day of the symposium, events focused on the impact of nature on wellbeing with activities such as hiking and paddling. During an event titled “Dartmouth Grown Initiatives: Whole Student Wellbeing,” economics professor Bruce Sacerdote ’90 moderated a conversation with panelists Tommy Clark ’92 MED ’01 and Phil Ginsburg ’89 about their efforts to improve well-being through outdoor activity.
Clark, the founder and CEO of youth health organization Grassroots Soccer, said at the panel he began working in the mental health sector with adolescents in Africa. After collecting data of these youths through the Grassroots Soccer program, partnered with the Kenyan government, their survey found that “no matter where” the kids initially fell on the mental health spectrum, their mental health improved after participating in the organization’s soccer program.
Ginsburg, the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, cited research that also showed how an increase in outdoor activity causes improvements of mental health, stating, “kids living in greener environments tend to have more positive moods, lower stress, more positive social interactions, higher self esteem and reduced risk for mental illness.”
Panel attendee Mirelle Mah’moud ’25 said the connection highlighted between mental health and nature was “just remarkable.”
“I think we forget the importance of spending time outside and also being in tune with nature,” she added.
The second event of the day, entitled “Whole Student Wellbeing,” featured five presentations from Dartmouth faculty about how different on-campus programs facilitate better wellbeing. The presentations were moderated by senior vice president for community and campus life Jennifer Rosales.
Hopkins Center executive director Mary Lou Aleskie gave a presentation focusing on how arts programs at Dartmouth work to bring the community together. Additionally, she said, an arts and wellness course that is “all about interpretation, reflection and empathy, building through arts experiences that are offered to students to translate” will launch in the spring.
“The arts are all about the human story,” she said. “It’s fundamental to our well being to connect and share our stories, to get to know each other, to get to know ourselves.”
On the second day of the symposium, New York University Stern School of Business professor Jonathan Haidt led a talk titled “The Anxious Generation,” in which he described the shift toward a “phone-based childhood” since 2012.
The gendered impact is that girls are “more subject to sexual predation and harassment” and “social comparism,” while boys become “addicted” to the “virtual world” as video games, pornography and stock investing “compete to hook them,” Haidt said.
Use of these technologies contributed to U.S. suicide rates for boys ages 10 to 14 to increase by 109% and 134% for girls the same ages since 2010, according to Haidt.
“Girls and boys take different paths, but end up in the same pit of despair,” he said.
Haidt urged “collective action,” such as for parents to only give their children smartphones after they turned 14. On a more macro level, countries should “enact reliability” for social media apps that “have the highest death impact,” he concluded.
Student Wellness Center executive director Kaitlen Bathemous said in an interview with The Dartmouth that Haidt’s talk “was very motivating” and “re-anchored me in the importance of these issues.”
Other events included a panel with six former surgeons general and a speech from College president Sian Lean Beilock.
Dartmouth economics professor and symposium organizer David Blanchflower said in an interview with The Dartmouth that the “inspiration” for the symposium was concern that youth mental health is “now a global crisis.” In August, Blanchflower published a study that found the young have surpassed the middle-aged in having the worst mental health.
The symposium was about “listening and observing — and understanding we have a problem,” he said.
“We should have done something to help when they [college-age students] were fifteen, but we didn’t — we didn’t know,” he said. “These folks [the panelists] are the folks who are going to focus on getting the answer.”
