The Hawn Foundation

Goldie Hawn on Hardball with Chris Matthews - discusses the work of The Hawn Foundation and her recent trip to Washington DC advocating for children’s mental health.

Washington, DC (May 7, 2009) – In honor of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, Goldie Hawn, children’s advocate and founder of The Hawn Foundation, campaigned for effective school-based children’s mental health programs at a Congressional briefing today.

“Children represent a fraction of our population, but 100% of our future. One in ten suffer from serious mental health disorders, and most aren’t getting the help they need. We need to address this crisis before it’s too late,” Hawn said.

Working with leading neuroscientists, educators, and researchers, the Hawn Foundation has developed a program called MindUP – now in hundreds of schools – that equips kids with simple, practical tools that help them understand and manage their behavior, reduce stress, increase empathy and improve academic performance.

“Increasing social and emotional learning skills is cost-effective and makes a big impact,” Hawn said. “Congress should increase funding to scale up programs like these to save our children’s lives, save our schools, and save our nation’s money, too.”

The briefing focused on investment in the educational future of children with mental health needs, a population that has the highest drop-out and failure rates and the lowest academic achievement of any disability group. The briefing was jointly hosted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health.

Howard Muscott, director of the New Hampshire Center for Effective Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), presented positive outcomes data from CMHS grant sites across the country. The data show that effective children’s mental health programs promote positive youth development, recovery, and increased resiliency, allowing children with mental health needs to thrive in their communities.

The briefing also highlighted the need for congressional support for Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act and the Mental Health in Schools Act, legislation that recognizes the partnership that must be established between schools and communities to ensure that children with mental health needs are identified and linked with effective services and supports. ###

 
Eight young performers living with mental health challenges from across the country joined child advocate Goldie Hawn last night for a celebration of resilience. The event was part of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) “HEAR ME NOW: A Celebration of Resiliency through the Performing Arts” commemoration of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, which took place at the Harman Center For the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Hawn received the SAMHSA Special Recognition Award for her work to increase public understanding of the role mental health plays in the total well-being of children and youth through her non-profit foundation, The Hawn Foundation. SAMHSA presented the award at the national Awareness Day event that was co-hosted by Twilight’s Solomon Trimble and Disney’s The Cheetah Girls’ Sabrina Bryan.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is SAMHSA’s annual demonstration of collaboration among numerous and diverse individuals, organizations, and agencies in the public and private sector working to provide greater access to community-based mental health services for children and youth with serious mental-health needs and their families.

 “National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day offers an opportunity to raise broader awareness about the importance of social and emotional well-being in youth,” said acting SAMHSA Administrator Eric Broderick, D.D.S., M.P.H. “The performers last night show that young people with mental health challenges can thrive in their community. SAMHSA studies show that access to comprehensive mental health services has incredible impact. Students are less likely to drop out of high school or receive school disciplinary action, and more likely reach higher levels of achievement after participating in systems of care programs.”

More than 750 attendees enjoyed song, dance and recited spoken word performances by youth performers from SAMHSA-funded system of care communities which are networks of community-based comprehensive mental health services and supports that help children. The performances demonstrated the power of the performing arts in helping youth with mental health needs thrive at home, at school, and in the community.

Performers included Jasmine Flenoy from Cuyahoga Tapestry System of Care in Cleveland, OH; Max Health and Kristian Smith from 7 Generation in Los Angeles, CA; Marquee James and Mya Meriweather from Allegheny County System of Care in Pittsburgh, PA; Marquita Jones from San Francisco System of Care in San Francisco, CA; Eddie Ortiz from Columbia River Wraparound in Dalles, OR; and Sam Stache from Community Circle of Care in Dubuque, IA.

Communities across the country also observed the day with events, youth demonstrations, and social networking campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of children’s mental health and the need for community-based children’s mental health supports and services. More than 40 leading child- and youth-serving agencies and organizations joined SAMHSA in championing Awareness Day this year, speaking as a unified voice to support children and youth with mental health needs and their families.

For the first time, SAMHSA and the Mental Health Commission of Canada (established by current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper) collaborated to raise awareness about children’s mental health in celebration of Awareness Day. The observance offered the two nations an opportunity to focus attention on increasing access to services for children and youth with mental health needs and their families through community events and outreach to the public.

For more information about National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, visit www.samhsa.gov/children.
  
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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the lead Federal agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day
Testimony by Goldie Hawn
Washington, DC
May 7, 2009

Good morning. My name is Goldie Hawn, and I want to thank the members of Congress, congressional staff, fellow panelists and all the advocates at this important briefing. I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

We’re meeting at a time of extraordinary turmoil in the world, and given the economic crisis, the mortgage meltdown, two wars and the flu outbreak, it would be all too easy to miss the inner turmoil that is afflicting so many of our children today. But this turmoil is an epidemic of quiet distress, one that is taking a terrible toll.
I’m here today to speak in three capacities.

First, as a mother who knows the joys and challenges of raising children.

Second, I’m testifying as a public citizen – someone who’s deeply concerned about improving our struggling schools, because they are so critical to our future.

Third, I’m speaking on behalf of The Hawn Foundation, which worked with leading educators, neuroscientists and other researchers to develop a program to enhance children’s social and emotional learning skills. This program, called “MindUP™,” is already in use in many schools across the United States and Canada, and it equips kids with simple, practical tools to help them:

• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Improve concentration and academic performance
• Understand the brain science linking emotions, thoughts and behavior
• Manage emotions and behavior more effectively
• Develop greater empathy for others and the world

But before I talk more about the impact of social and emotional learning programs, I’d like to set the context. Many in Washington and across the country are well aware of the academic problems in our schools. In addition, many are aware of and concerned about the mental health of our children.

Here is an important connection to make: children’s mental health affects their academic performance; and their academic performance affects their mental health. In other words, depression, anxiety and unhappiness impair school performance. Similarly, school failure contributes to mental health problems.

Across our country, one in 10 children suffers from a serious mental health disorder, and only a small fraction of them receive the help and services they need. A national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that 8% of our kids in grades 9-12 tried to take their own life, and 17% reported “seriously considering” suicide. These troubling statistics reflect symptoms of a deep unhappiness that can afflict children from all backgrounds.

We need solutions that simultaneously promote children’s social-emotional skills, mental health, and academic performance. According to CASEL, the nation’s leading organization focused on social and emotional learning, several hundred studies have documented that social and emotional learning programs help children improve classroom behavior, become more engaged in learning, and perform better academically, These programs have also been proven to reduce kids’ anti-social and violent behavior generally, and lower the likelihood of drug use.

Recent field reports from classrooms using the Hawn Foundation’s MindUP™ program – one of which is in Alexandria, just across the Potomac – reinforce this research.

I spoke recently with one teacher, who told me one of her students started crying because his dad was leaving on a 3-month assignment out of town. Without prompting from the teacher, other kids – who had been working on their social and emotional learning skills – gathered around to comfort their classmate. One said his dad had been in the hospital for brain cancer, where he couldn’t visit him. Another talked about his parents’ divorce, and his dad moving out. And their empathy in the classroom made that first boy feel better.

In another classroom, an autistic child, nervous about a test, started to shake his hands over and over, a sign of anxiety that can often escalate. A fellow student – who had been working on his social and emotional learning skills – spotted his classmate’s anxiety and approached the teacher with a solution: a deep-breathing and centering exercise for the entire class. In just a couple of minutes, this calmed everyone down, including the autistic child, who was then able to join the others in taking the test.

These are small examples, but the point is that we have valuable tools we can teach our kids – tools that can have a big impact on the way they interact, learn in the classroom, and navigate life. Our challenge as adults is to ensure that we make these tools available to every child that needs them.

And I would argue that every child in America does need them.

Today, as we mark National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, I hope that leaders here in Washington will commit themselves to scaling up funding for the mental health resources – including implementation of social and emotional learning programs – that our children need to overcome the challenges they face.

I also urge Congress to reauthorize funding for the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which must be able to continue its vital work.

Finally, I would add that, at a time when our nation is struggling to bring down health care costs, supporting social and emotional learning programs in elementary schools is extremely cost-effective. First, these programs are inexpensive. Second, they make a big impact in helping young people manage and reduce stress – and over time, stress is a major contributor to a whole range of costly health issues.

We need to focus on creating healthy, eager learners who can reach their full potential. And until we do so, our children will continue to struggle academically, and continue to lag behind students in other countries. In a competitive global economy, this is a terrible handicap – for our kids and our country.

So let’s move forward and equip our kids with these powerful social and emotional tools. We know what works. The research is clear. Now is the time to apply what we know in every classroom across America.

Because remember, while our children might only be a fraction of our population, they represent 100% of our future. We owe it to them – and ourselves – to make sure their future is one of health, happiness and genuine opportunity.

Thank you.