Exclusive – Sophie Szew on the mental health crisis and policy reform

‘Conversations with policymakers can divulge into unhelpful, broad thinking, for example: “How can we get young people to turn off their phones?”’ Sophie illustrates. ‘Young people – when invited into the room – can redirect the conversation to: “How are you, our leaders, going to make it so that young people feel like we have systems of support in person? How are you going to protect our safety in online spaces and in the day to day?”’ 

She offers up another example. ‘A young person might say, “My biggest mental health struggle right now is that I feel anxious about going to school.” Instead of pushing them straight into the mental healthcare system, we should ask “Why is that?” And then we can talk about gun violence, which is a systemic issue.’ 

‘So as you can see, there’s this big intergenerational gap between the “solutions” people in power are offering us and what young people actually view as problems. There’s a bridge that needs to be built to fix this gap in understanding,’ she tells me. ‘Only then can we work together to find those deeper solutions.’

Last year, Sophie had an opportunity to bridge this gap when she took part in the MTV Youth Action Forum. She was one of thirty young people invited to the White House to speak with President Joe Biden, the First Lady, and the Surgeon General about issues relevant to our generation within mental health.

‘That brought a lot of attention to the administration’s investment in their mental health agenda, but also to the unfortunate and shocking fact that this hasn’t been done before,’ Sophie says, offering her perspective on the experience. 

‘Why don’t we see more young people in the room with those writing and implementing the policies that affect their generation, or even better, being the ones to write and implement those policies?’

These shortcomings are visible throughout the entire system, and Sophie notices them whether she’s at the White House, completing internships in Congress, or working in her current advocacy role within the government. 

Through each of her experiences, Sophie has found that current healthcare systems lack the nuance to deal with the unique needs and identities of people today. 

She points to rigid, binary ways of thinking as one of the reasons why existing systematic approaches to mental health are failing so many people. 

‘The current system relies on categorising certain behaviours or ways of being as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ meaning we end up forcing people into classifications to decide whether to give them resources or deny them resources. But the problem is that most people don’t fall into those strict guidelines. 

‘People act in different ways based on their positions in the world, based on the context they were raised in, on the context they exist in, and that changes throughout their lives too,’ Sophie tells me, and it sounds like common sense – so why isn’t it?

‘The way Gen Z sees it is: things are not just one thing or the other. You cannot and should not categorize people into one group for the sake of making them easier to deal with. While having access to certain labels can be necessary in order to assign resources, the underlying issue is that so much boxing in needs to happen for the system to function, that it eventually doesn’t line up with how we truly exist in the world.’

When asked how Trump’s return to office could impact mental health policy and youth involvement shaping it, Sophie delivers the hard truth, which is that having our basic needs met is soon to become even more difficult for many. This is a scary thought, she admits, but this fear is already being turned into action, with grassroots community efforts starting to gain serious momentum. 

‘People are addressing their community’s needs themselves by building groups of care on and off social media, doing things on campuses to help each other, and seeking support from their families to address issues,’ says Sophie.  

She goes on to acknowledge that marginalised groups – in the face of systems that are not and have never been set up to meet their needs – have been supporting each other on a community level for time immemorial. 

Sophie says that uplifting these communities while following their lead will be key to ensuring everyone is receiving the care they need. 

‘Learn about the role of self-care and what it was initially meant to do. What kinds of care have been denied historically and to whom, and what did they do about it?’ Sophie says. ‘We can use this as, essentially, our survival guide.’ 

Throughout our conversation I’ve noted Sophie’s impressive unwillingness to vilify social media, despite the harm it’s caused her personally. In fact, she remains an avid user of some platforms, viewing them as a powerful community building tool when used correctly.  

‘A lot of people like to think that Gen Z’s most pressing mental health issue is social media – the time that we spend on it, the harmful content that we might engage in, and the isolation that it’s causing. But I’d say those are all can be viewed as symptoms for much larger issues.

‘Social media is just a tool that those issues become projected upon.’ Sophie states. ‘A lot of us feel harmed and isolated in our day to day lives, so we turn to online platforms to find and seek community and find and seek ways to heal each other.’

 

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For those who feel unsure of how to begin their journey into mental health advocacy or getting involved with activism, Sophie assures them that there’s a good chance they probably have already started. 

‘There’s resistance in simply meeting your own needs and meeting your community’s needs when something isn’t being provided to you. I consider that to be resistance against oppressive systems, which is activism at its core,’ she tells me. 

‘Now it’s just a matter of feeling that empowerment, which – like I said in the beginning – happens through language and within community.’

In terms of what the future looks like, Sophie remains optimistic. Engaging with others who are dedicated to creating change and witnessing them get involved in their own communities, she feels confident that young people will continue to get louder while identifying creative solutions to help care for one another. 

And whilst there is still a lack of awareness amongst older generations and policymakers about the work that young people are doing, Sophie is looking forward to forming new bridges of communication to close those gaps in intergenerational understanding. 

‘I am excited to continue connecting with our elders and others who might not be youth, but who care about youth, to show them how we’re building our communities stronger for one another, and how they can support us.’

For Sophie, a key part of that is appreciating the wisdom and work of those communities and changemakers who came before. ‘I want to continue to root myself in the knowledge, in the history of people that have been doing this work for so many generations.’