Chief Justice Broderick Works to Raise Awareness About Youth Mental Health Crisis
In the past six years, John Broderick has logged tens of thousands of miles visiting more than 375 schools and making dozens of additional speeches throughout northern New England. His mission: to stimulate candid, non-judgmental discussion about mental health, with young people as a primary target both because they are so affected by it, and because they have the greatest capacity to help lift the stigma.
Former New Hampshire Chief Justice John Broderick has spent the last five years speaking mostly to school groups to raise awareness and erase the stigma of mental illness.
Photo by Mark Washburn, courtesy of Dartmouth Health.
Statistics don’t lie, and they are highlighting for all of us the serious impact of mental health problems among youth, including attempted and completed suicides. It is a crisis we can’t ignore.
In 2019, one in three high school students and half of female students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, an overall increase of 40% from 2009, according to a study by the US Surgeon General.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people aged 10-24, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During 2018, according to another CDC report examining data from emergency departments, nearly 100,000 youths aged 14–18 years were seen for self-harm injuries. And in 2019, according to the Youth Risk and Behavior Survey, 18.8% of students reported having seriously considered suicide, with the rates much higher (24%) reported among girls.
Broderick, whose illustrious resume includes serving as Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and Dean of the UNH School of Law, has now authored a book (based on his own experience) titled Backroads and Highways - My Journey to Discovery on Mental Health. He candidly talks about the missed signs and the tragic consequences of his son’s undiagnosed mental illness.That incident – nationally publicized because of Broderick’s visible position as Chief Justice–is not the focus of either his speeches or the book. Most memorable in his account are the faces and voices of the numerous students who inevitably form long lines after his talk, waiting to share a few words with him. Some are simply thanking him for bringing the suffering of mental illness out into the open; while others reveal deep feelings of despair, loneliness and suicidal thoughts. Broderick recalls several encounters where he listened intently, then gently persuaded the child to meet with a school counselor.
The fact that they want to talk to him, confide in him or simply hug him has inspired him to continue his one-man journey to alert all of us to the mental health crisis facing young people. In the book, he says he wants the voices of the children to “speak through me.”
“Every time I spoke, I relived our nightmare and depleted myself. I just wanted it to be worth it,” he writes in Backroads. “But when my talk and personal visits were over, as tired as I felt, I had always been comforted by the stories and hugs that kids so willingly shared. Their gifts of candor and vulnerability sustained me through long days. Change always seemed more urgent to me in those incomparable moments – and more possible, too.”
Broderick says the book is part of his attempt to extend the discussion to parents and other adults. His visits to schools throughout the region sometimes have included evening programs for parents which, he laments, are less well-attended than the basketball games held at the same venues.
“As the years passed, and I spoke with more and more kids about their challenges and struggles, I wondered as I reflected on my ride home if their parents saw and knew what I was seeing and hearing… or at least perceived it the same way if they did.”
Broderick has met parents who have recognized their children’s struggles and some have reached out to him to help find providers or to find treatment. It can be an uphill struggle, as there are not enough mental health clinicians, especially for children. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, points to these statistics regarding the prevalence of mental illness and the paucity of trained help:
13%-20% of U.S. children - nearly 1 in 5 - have a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder in a given year.
Only about 20% of children with mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders receive care from a specialized mental health care provider.
50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
Ratios of child and adolescent psychiatrists range by state from 1 to 60 per 100,000 children, with a median of 11 child and adolescent psychiatrists per 100,000 children.
Broderick is now Senior Director of External Affairs for Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, which has supported his speaking tours and published the book. He said his mental health advocacy is “the most important work I have ever done.”
He closes his book with a call to action: “Nothing will likely change until we normalize and destigmatize mental illness and really appreciate all the people and families it affects, often our own. Until we are informed enough, impatient enough and brave enough to finally and publicly say without embarrassment, ‘my mother, my father, my sister, my friend, my child, myself,’ solutions – although visible and achievable- will remain beyond our grasp… Together we could change it. We need to.”
To obtain a copy of Broderick’s book in a print or digital version, visit the Dartmouth Health website. Watch a video of one of his talks. Also, Dartmouth Health is in the midst of a yearlong series of webinars, Heads Up: A Yearlong Mental Health Awareness Journey, covering various aspects of the mental health crisis.