Org, or listen. Ceo of the American Psychological association. We know we are feeling more stress and the apa is trying to qualify the scope of the problem. Dr. Evans our stress in America Survey tries to measure the stress level of the nation to understand what the sources of those stresses are, what coping strategies people are employing, and really to draw attention to the fact that stress is highly related to physical and Mental Health challenges we face. Thatwe are seeing now is stress related to the pandemic is very high in the United States. Almost 80 of americans are reporting significant stress related to the pandemic. The stressors of that people have already been reporting precovid and in addition to that there are unique characteristics of this pandemic that are adding more stress to what americans are experiencing. Many americans are experiencing more economic stresses because of the loss of a job or a closing of a business. Concernsme significant about Racial Justice and some of the protests we have seen. What we are seeing is a very significant level of stress in the population. We know that if we dont do something about that level of stress that it could lead to a whole variety of negative outcomes for people. Just to dig more into the stress in america report, which you can find online on the apa website. The stress particularly impacting the youngest americans. What did you find when it came to gen z . Has shown our survey consistently that older generations experience less stress than Younger Generations. We see that in this data as well. Ourchallenge is that younger adults and what we define as generation z, 14 to 17 and for young adults the ages from 18 to 23. That group is experiencing extreme amounts of stress related to their disruptions and , and disruptions in their life plans for younger adults who are looking many of them would be looking for their first job at this point. They are experiencing quite a bit of stress. Is thats, what we saw about half of them are very concerned about their future concernsand have about their life trajectory being disrupted by the pandemic. For young adults, what we have seen is that close to 90 of them who are in college are very concerned and stressed by their disruptions and their educations. Really high levels of stress, concern, and it points to the pact that we have to fact that we have to Pay Attention to our Younger Generations. Host until 10 00 a. M. Eastern we are talking about stress with dr. Arthur evans of the American Psychological association. Splitting up our phone lines regionally to let you talk about stress. In the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 in the mountain or pacific time zones. A special line for medical professionals. Medical professionals 202 7488002. Dr. Evans, you laid out the scope. What do we do about it . Dr. Evans we dont have enough boots on the ground when it comes to our Mental Health system. That isa system currently inadequate for the level of need that we have received in the country. The first thing we have to do is make sure that we are making a Financial Investment into our Mental Health system to make sure we are getting the resources and services. People who work in the Mental Health realm dont make as much as people in other areas. A wagee to pay people that is comparable to other areas of health care. We also have to make changes in organize and the way that we regulate Mental Health here in this country. Parts of ours and system, whether it is the federal or state level, there are barriers to care. In the medical system there are barriers that make it difficult for psychologists to work independently within that program. At a time when our seniors need more Mental Health services. We have to do both. Lets invest into our Mental Health system, but also lets make sure we are removing barriers that make it hard for us to provide services. To make, we really need a shift in the way we think about Mental Health and the way we respond to Mental Health in our country. Its a very reactive response so that we are intervening with when people are in crisis are have a diagnosis, but we are not intervening earlier where we could prevent or reduce the impact of the Mental Health challenge. It would be like if we were talking about cancer and we would be intervening at stage iv cancer when it comes to Mental Health, when we were responding to cancer in a similar way. Very reactive. You have to get what we talk about that means intervening at the earliest point. We have to pay for services when people dont have a diagnosis. It is a very diagnostically driven system that leads people that are in need. What the covid crisis is showing is that our survey and other surveys are showing that people are reporting stress, but also symptoms consistent with having Mental Health challenges even if people dont have a diagnosis. We can wait until those individuals have problems or are in crisis, or we can intervene now. We have to change how we finance our Mental Health care system. I think its important to change how we think about these issues as a nation. We have seen too often that Mental Health is viewed as something about them, those people over there with a Mental Health problem. Mental health is about us, all of us, because all of us experience and have Mental Health. We are somewhere on a continuum from having good Mental Health to having very significant challenges. Is start to to do see Mental Health as something that affects the entire population, that we take a population approach to this issue, that we intervene wherever people are on that continuum. If people are psychologically healthy we want to keep them healthy. We dont spend any of our resources on those caps of interventions. If people are at risk and they have not gotten to the point where they need intervention, how do we reduce the risk or minimally intervene at the earliest moment . For people that have significant problems we want to make sure that we have effective and efficient care. We have to work across the continuum and take more ownership ourselves of Mental Health, increasing Mental Health literacy meaning that in the same way that almost all of us exercised that if we and we have Good Nutrition and we sleep and those types of things, those are strategies that all of us know that will help prevent illness down the line. Understand what of the things are that we can do to keep ourselves psychologically healthy and what are the ships we have to do. One thing i will say about that, the American Psychological association is really trying to make a contribution in this area. Apa. Org we have a lot of resources for people in terms of their selfcare strategies they can use to increase the resiliency of their children, strategies employers and leaders can use to reduce anxiety and create more psychologically healthy work settings. Really is a lot of work we have to do as a nation. Create antrying to environment here were our viewers can call in and talk about stress, particularly stress related to the pandemic, this election cycle, all parts of the stress in america report available at apa. Org. This is david in independence, louisiana. Dr. Arthurth evans. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Im calling in desperation. I am so glad mr. Evans is on there. , the part thatna i live in, tara bone parish theres a gravel pit a couple miles north of me. The truck start rolling through here at about 1 30 or 2 00 in the morning, whenever they feel like it. They will roll six days or seven days a week, they dont care. I have been on the phone for three or four days talking with politicians from this area or state officials trying to convince them of what you say, that a lack of sleep will make you susceptible to disease. You will not heal correctly. Thats why they put you in the hospital when you are sick. These people are beating this neighborhood to death. There are people dying in this neighborhood. There are people down the road at the entrance which is 10,000 worth motion and noise than over here two miles south. Im trying, im so tired. Died, im notve saying they kill them, but for people have died. In one year, four different families within 1000 feet of the entrance. Thats all. Host david, thank you for sharing your story. I want to give dr. Evans a chance to talk about your story. Caller my heart guest my heart goes out to him, because i can imagine how difficult that is and the impact that is having on his Mental Health. What it is pointing out is something we have known for quite a bit of time. That our environment plays a big role in our Mental Health and physical health and that we have to Pay Attention. I hope he is able to do some advocacy so he can get relief from what he is experiencing. There is a study a psychologist in new york on schoolchildren whose school was near a train track. Building, the the classrooms where the children experienced the trains going by every day actually had a very significant loss in terms of performance. Onal they were one or two grades behind counterparts on the others of the building. The psychologist did advocacy with the school where they changed the level of noise that these childrens were experiencing and it made a big difference in terms of those children being able to catch up to their peers who werent experiencing that. It drives over the point this color was making that those environmental factors can play a big role and that we have to take action to address those. Otherwise you will have problems like the caller seemed to be indicating. Twittereve writes in on being a news junkie is unhealthy. We should all turn off our tv and go outside. This late in a political campaign, amid the news about a pandemic, when do you recommend people turn off the tv . Its a good point that we know from research. We know that a lot of media intake is not good for our Mental Health. We have to manage it. Aware ofo check and be what is going on in the world. We also know that if we do too much of that it will have a negative impact on our Mental Health. We have to be good judges of that. Where it ismes clear that i will theonly news related but kind of media and movies that we watch. We are under a lot of stresses come our survey is showing 80 of americans are under a lot of stress related to this pandemic. We have to be careful about our intake of information. I am very conscious about the kind of movies i watch on the weekend. I dont want to watch things that are going to get me upset or have my brain working. I need some time to calm down. Our media is very important. Modulating that so that we are not being stressed out by the amount of information we are taking in. T 78 of her pond and respondents in that stress in america report say the pandemic is a source of stress and the future of the nation its the lowest point in this nation in its history. Some of the findings of the stress in america report we are talking about this morning. This is ryan from california. About thewas calling definition of words. Words are very important. The people are not being educated in the words mean. Word . What caller they had the words to find that were used in the constitution and those were printed by the newspapers in all the different states so that people would know what the constitution said and what it meant. Democracy when Benjamin Franklin spoke to it and they discussed, why dont we call it a democracy rather than a republic, he defined the democracy and the republic. A democracy meant mob rules and a republic means liberty. Army in a word in english when you have a republic it means in regards to the republic. The republic controls the government, not the government controlling the people. Americansevans, on speaking the same language to each other but not understanding each other. Guest i think one of the things dr. Evans one of the things our survey showed is that there is a lot of stress related to the election. It was it was very high, 56 of the population had significant concerns about the election. Now we are in the 70s. 71 is the number. Arere reporting that people extremely stressed out by the political environment. Connection to what the caller was talking about is that we have to think about the civility of how we talk about the politics of the nation. We can disagree, but do it in such a way that we reduce the level of disagreement and the stress that causes. I think that is something all of us can do to be more conscious of that. I think our political leaders and to take some leadership understand their power is not just by the roles and appointments they get in their political position, but they play a big role in how we feel about ourselves and how we experience our environment, based on the tone they use. The language we use, how we talk about these issues is very important. Host on the pandemic, this is william in connecticut saying that of the black death it was said that half the people died of fear. Do you believe in a placebo effect in relation to the content reporting about covid. Pandemic ishe causing a lot of uncertainty in that is related to anxiety. We are seeing that and our data and anecdotally from clinicians working in this area. We have to understand that uncertainty leads to fear and to do as much as we can to reduce that uncertainty. Havewe worked with ceos, i been doing a lot of webinars with organizations of ceos and talking about, how did they help prepare their workforce to return to work, or how to they create an environment where their workforce is going to be psychologically healthy . One of the concepts we talked about is the issue of uncertainty and how they as leaders, if they can make decisions that reduce the uncertainty of peoples lives and create a more healthy psychological environment and reduce the anxiety people are experiencing. I will give you one concrete example. In my organization we have been making decisions about how long we were going to be in the virtual environment with very long time frames. Right now our staff know we are going to be in a virtual environment until june of next year. What does that do . It reduces uncertainty, particularly for parents who are thinking about whether or not they will have to come up with , if our stance as an Organization Changes during the school year it takes one things it reduces the anxiety around that area and allows people to deal with the other anxieties they have to deal with. Uncertainty leads to fear and the things we can do to reduce that and reduce anxieties. In rosedale, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. I succumbed to the mindset that the media has devastated and affected the world in a negative way. [indiscernible] thwarted the peoples ability to discern the truth and know that the truth is in the matter, because it is so distorted. Its all around the world. Now that we have this vast amount of communication throughout the world, i dont know how we can fix that. We are being affected. Interpretations that we are receiving from the media and we have other sources as well. You dont complain in less you have a solution. Im not saying i have a solution. What i would like to say is we need to stop the hate. A human being as uman being whether you are muslim, jewish, buddhist, etc. , that person is a human being and we should respect that person. Host i want to let dr. Evans jump in. Where did you work and what topics did you cover as a journalist . Caller i worked in new york. I started out in the newspaper. Company for a chinese and they had so much knowledge about human beings. It was a great experience. They were highly involved. In new york. Agnes dr. Evans . Dr. Evans she talked about two things. One is about the media and the media we consume. In addition to what we talked about earlier in terms of limiting the amount of media that we take in, its also important to consider the sources. One way of reducing the stress around all of the incoming is to limit our media intake to trusted sources. There is a lot of misinformation out there, actual attempts to put fake information out there. On bothcould focus sources that we trust, it is more likely that we are not going to be as stressed about that incoming information. Onterms of the second part how we treat one another, that absolutely is something that is highly related to our mental , treating how we feel people with dignity and respect creates an environment that is psychologically healthier for people. Point about being intentional about that is important. It contributes to how we feel and how we relate to one another. This is val out of florida. Caller good morning, thank you. Thank you for washington journal and thank you, dr. Evans. I am concerned about children. You kind of addressed it a ofent ago, particularly some the Adverse Childhood Experiences perspective on how see thely we will consequences of trauma in childrens lives area i am concerned on how covid has disrupted society and how it has impacted children. Especially children who are already in psychologically unsafe environments. Question is, what is the apa doing in preparation for when children go back to school and helping them to recover in that way . From a funding, testing, support for schools i think we will have to be very proactive have to medicate the negative impact of children. Another great comment and ideas there. To remind people of our website, apa. Org. We have a lot of resources from parents, teachers, and other caregivers of children. We have resources on how to talk to your children about these types of events that are happening. A lot of resources there for that. One thing we know f