With one in seven of 10–19-year-olds experiencing mental health conditions and suicide being the second leading cause of death among 10-14 year-olds, we are in the midst of a mental health crisis. And the solution starts with us.
I had the opportunity to interview Alexander Kopelman, founder and president of the Children’s Arts Guild, on creating safe spaces of authenticity, creativity, and individuality for children.
What is mental health literacy and why is it an important skill to develop?
In an interview in my book, For Real, Hector, a school district superintendent from Illinois, shares his experience of growing up with a parent who was mentally ill. “See,” Hector says, “the huge black hole at the center of my universe is the fact that my mother
suffered from mental illness. There was a lot of stigma around that in my family and our community, so it was a big secret. I’ve worked for decades first to deny its importance in my life and then to repair the damage. It’s hard to acknowledge how it’s still reverberating for me.”
Sadly, Hector’s story describes the experience way too many children continue to have. Mental illness, shrouded in stigma and taboo, is still misunderstood and met with shame, silence, and inaction.
The concept of mental health literacy was developed by the Australian psychologist Anthony F. Jorm, Ph.D and first introduced in a paper published in 1997 in the Medical Journal of Australia, which described a research study that sought to evaluate the public’s knowledge of and beliefs about mental disorders.
“If mental disorders are to be recognised early in the community and appropriate intervention sought,” Dr. Jorm and his coauthors concluded, “the level of mental health literacy needs to be raised. Further, public understanding of psychiatric treatments can be considerably improved.”
Dr. Jorm continued his investigations into mental health literacy, refining and expanding the concept. In a 2012 article in American Psychologist, he described it as: “...(a) the public's knowledge of how to prevent mental disorders, (b) recognition of when a disorder is developing, (c) knowledge of help-seeking options and treatments available, (d) knowledge of effective self-help strategies for milder problems, and (e) first aid skills to support others affected by mental health problems.”
Mental health literacy allows us to place mental disorders into the larger context of health and to approach them with an eye to prevention, treatment, and management. This, in turn, reduces the stigma historically associated with mental illness and prevents the kind of multigenerational trauma Hector experienced in his family.
How can parents and caregivers promote mental health education at home and in schools?
As parents, our most important job is to be role models for our children. That requires self-reflection and an intentional practice of showing up for them in ways that allow them to see us living our lives according to the values we want them to develop.
“If you want your kids to have . . . certain values,” Warren Buffett said in response to a question at the 2023 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, “it’s important that you live those values.”
In thinking about mental health literacy, we must start with ourselves. It’s important to pause and reflect. What was your experience with mental health when you were a child? How old were you when you first heard about someone who had a mental disorder? What did you hear? How did the adults around you talk about mental health? What beliefs do you carry about mental health? How do these beliefs affect your behavior? What do you do to take care of your own mental health?
The best thing we can do for children is to educate ourselves about mental health and to share that knowledge with them through the way we live.
How can families halt the cycle of negative messages children receive, particularly during adolescence?
We can’t insulate our children from the unintentional--and sadly, the sometimes intentional--negative messages they get from their peers, the adults around them, and the culture in general. What we can and must do is help them learn how to deal with those messages.
Emotional health literacy is a critical part of mental health literacy. And for me, it begins and ends with a thriving, positive relationship with our authentic selves. When we know who we are and feel comfortable in our own skins, we can receive negative messages and treat them with discernment.
Again, the work begins with us. In For Real, I offer the W.H.O.L.E. framework for developing a deeper relationship with our authentic selves:
• Be a Witness to your full self.
• Be Honest about strengths and struggles.
• Be Open to growth.
• Be Loving toward yourself.
• Be Expressive of your inner truth.
Kindness, compassion, and empathy will help you understand who you are at the moment and grow into the person you want to be. An essential first step is to pay attention to how you speak to yourself. What do you say to yourself if you send an email with a typo to your boss? How about if you can’t find your phone? And what if you lock the keys in the car?
“Once I paused to listen to what was going on in my head,” says Dimitrius, the father of teenage twins who works in hospitality in Washington, DC, “I was kind of shocked. I was berating myself all the time in this mean, nasty way. And saying things that I would never say to another person.”
Most of us have pretty harsh inner voices. To begin to move toward being loving to yourself, try this exercise: The next time you catch yourself saying something unkind to yourself, pause and take a breath. Now, picture a friend or a beloved family member. Would you say what you just said to yourself to this person? If the answer is no, think about what you would say instead, if anything. And now say that to yourself. Repeat as often as possible. With daily practice, you’ll notice a remarkable shift in your relationship with yourself.
And when your children see you practicing being WHOLE and going through the world navigating by your inner compass, they will begin to develop the inner strength to manage the messages they receive from the world.
Alex has recently been featured in CEOWorld and interviewed on unEDited Chatter and unMASKing with Male Educators. He is also the author of For Real: Helping Children Remain Their Authentic Selves in a Limiting World [June 9, 2026 | Page Two], a rich trove of information providing hands-on activities, deep reflection, and inspiring examples.
Through his Authenticity Works Initiative, Alex teaches valuable tools to promote connection and compassion while working with children. With his expert guidance, educators and administrators, school counselors, pediatricians, and parents explore what it means to be “for real” and why it matters to children’s development and sense of self.
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