Boston Bridges Turn Green For Children's Mental Health Awareness Week

BOSTON — On Monday night, the Zakim, Longfellow, Fore River, and Burns bridges will light up green to showcase Children's Mental Health Awareness Week.

In efforts to highlight the importance of mental health in children, The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at MGH has partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation by lighting up bridges across the city in green.

Massachusetts General Hospital says they will be following suit by lighting up its Bulfinch Building in green on Saturday, May 7.

Experts in pediatric healthcare stress the importance of mental health, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the challenges Massachusetts residents of all ages had to face.

Officials argue the struggles of mental health have become particularly dire in children, prompting leading experts in pediatric healthcare to declare the children's mental health crisis a national emergency.

Before COVID-19, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 5 children had a mental disorder, but only about 20 percent of those children received care from a mental health provider.

If children are facing trauma because of child abuse or the loss of a family member or everyday anxiety brought on by the virus and unpredictable routines, they need even more support - which can be difficult to fare amid a significant shortage of children's mental health resources.

A 2020 survey from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago found that 71 percent of parents said the pandemic had taken a toll on their child's mental health, with 69 percent adding that the pandemic was the worst thing to happen to their child.

A national survey of 3,300 high schoolers conducted in the spring of 2020 found close to a third of students felt unhappy and depressed much more than usual.