From Labs to the Streets, Experts Work to Defuse Childhood Threats to Mental Health

The Picower Institute · May 18, 2023

Featuring Gregory Bratman, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

Threats to lifelong mental health can arise for young children from sources including poverty, abuse or neglect at home and racism, inequity and pollution outside their doors, but the hopeful message that a range of experts brought to MIT May 11 was that amid these many risks, approaches to provide effective protections and remedies are numerous and growing.

In welcome and closing remarks that framed The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory’s daylong symposium, “Environmental and Social Determinants of Child Mental Health,” Director and Picower Professor Li-Huei Tsai and School of Science Dean Nergis Mavalvala highlighted how new treatment strategies, programs for prevention, and practices for delivering care are emerging from a continuum that spans fundamental scientific, medical and public health research to evidence-based community services and social activism.