Vermont youth — like many nationwide — are struggling with their mental health. The reasons for what many have termed a “crisis” are complex, although many are increasingly pointing the finger at technology, specifically smartphones and social media.
Now, two tech companies have told Vermont lawmakers that the solution is, possibly, more technology.
In the past several weeks, two youth-targeted telehealth firms have pitched the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare on their products.
First was the British startup Kooth, which offers an app called Soluna. It offers one-on-one communication with mental health coaches, group messaging platforms where users can discuss their challenges together, “interactive self-care tools” and guides to finding local resources like housing and medical care.
The youth mental health crisis “requires innovative and scalable solutions beyond traditional care,” Laura Tully, the firm’s vice president of partnerships, told senators when testifying last month.
“We are never going to train enough providers and get them in the right places for every young person to have an in-person appointment,” Tully said.
On Thursday, the committee heard from Hazel Health, a telehealth company offering virtual medical and mental health appointments.
“Nearly one in five children nationwide experience mental health challenges,” Sean Bradley, a Hazel executive, told lawmakers. “Yet the vast majority of them, about 80%, go untreated. This gap in care can be a profound impact on a child’s ability to succeed academically, socially and ultimately, in the workforce.”
Both Hazel and Kooth have contracts with schools and other state governments amid a nationwide surge in companies offering virtual mental health care for youth: Hazel Health has contracts to work in over 5,000 schools in 20 states, according to Bradley, while Kooth has contracted with the state of California and announced a contract with New Jersey in December.
That California contract has drawn some attention, after a California official resigned following a Kooth-funded trip to the U.K., KFF Health News reported. (Kooth said in a statement that the company believes the reporting “fails to raise any legitimate concerns regarding Kooth.”)
This year, both Kooth and Hazel have dropped thousands of dollars on Vermont lobbyists: $30,000 and $9,000, respectively, according to state records.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, the chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said it’s unlikely the committee will introduce any relevant legislation this year. But “we’re at a critical stage right now where we really need to do something systemically for kids,” Lyons said Thursday.
“Whatever will work cost-effectively, I’m willing to look at,” she added.
— Peter D’Auria
In the know
On Thursday, state officials and nonprofit leaders launched the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund with the goal of raising $1 million to bolster legal representation for immigrants.
“We are seeing the power of legal representation to change lives. We’re seeing also how many people there are who are still waiting for legal help,” said Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, a nonprofit that provides pro bono immigration representation, at the fund’s launch.
Mohsen Mahdawi, A Columbia University student whose detention in Vermont by federal authorities for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinian human rights has drawn national attention, spoke at the launch event and praised the fundraising for its support of democracy.
He recalled being held in a Vermont prison cell with a migrant farmworker.
“Before he goes to bed, he would kneel on his knees, and he would hold his hands, and he would do a prayer from the Catholic tradition,” Mahdawi said. “I think his prayers have been answered today by this initiative.”
Read more about the new initiative here.
— Ethan Weinstein
The latest study in an ongoing effort to track traffic stops across Vermont indicates that Black, Hispanic and Asian drivers continue to be disproportionately targeted, even though the number of stops have significantly decreased since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Black drivers were stopped by police at a rate 30% higher than would be expected given their share of the driving population, and Hispanic drivers were stopped at double their share of the driving population.
Police have increasingly stopped Asian drivers, according to the 2022-2023 data examined in the latest update to the report by Stephanie Seguino, economics professor at the University of Vermont, Cornell professor Nancy Brooks and Pat Autilio, an independent data analyst who works at the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance.
In general, data shows that Vermont police stop cars at a higher rate than other states around the country.
“Even though traffic stops have fallen almost 50% (since the pandemic) we are still stopping cars at two-and-a-half times the rate of the national average of traffic stops in Vermont,” said Seguino this week in a phone interview.
Read more about the results of the study at vtdigger.org.
— Auditi Guha
