Guest column: Worcester County central in legacy of mental health in America

Amid a mental health crisis, Americans are reconsidering what “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” really mean. We are recognizing that a key piece of the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of living mentally and emotionally well.

Within decades of the nation’s founding, Worcester County and the Blackstone Valley began exporting ideas and innovations that became some of the nation’s most important and influential resources in the realm of mental health. There is a clear constellation of innovation, discovery and concern for mental health that has emanated from here since the 1800s. It is time to assert that this region is America’s Mental Health & Wellness Corridor — and to deepen our wellness culture in the 21st century.

In the 1970s, mindfulness was largely unknown or discounted as an “earthy-crunchy” practice. Today, the worldwide market for mindfulness is estimated at $2 trillion. Research indicates its benefits extend beyond the treatment of mental illness to include improved well-being and sometimes improved physical health.

In 1979, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the UMass Medical School in Worcester and went on to launch the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program. Today, MBSR is in use at over 700 medical centers and clinics worldwide. Kabat-Zinn’s impact has been recognized by medical journals and popular literature such as Parade magazine. If mindfulness is viewed as a cellphone that helps one get in touch with oneself, Jon Kabat Zinn is Steve Jobs.

In 1909, Sigmund Freud chose Worcester — not Boston or New York City — for the only American lectures given by the “father of psychoanalysis.” Attendees came from across the country and returned home, helping these ideas and the early lexicon of psychology to go viral in an early 20th-century way.

Nowadays, cognitive behavioral therapy, with its focus on mental health tools, skills and strategies, is the bedrock of mental health and wellness practices. Dr. Aaron Beck, widely credited as the inventor of CBT, hailed from the University of Pennsylvania. Yet, in the mid-1990s, Beck chose Worcester’s Assumption University as the first college to house a CBT teaching program named after him.

The old Worcester State Hospital, founded in 1830, was one of the earliest state-run psychiatric hospitals in the country and is a prominent example of our willingness to invest in mental health treatment infrastructure. However, we cannot expect investments in care facilities and talented mental health care providers alone to address the current crisis. Culture has a role to play.

Educators and schools are on the front lines of today’s mental health challenges. Would our kids listen more attentively to discussions about positive mental habits if they knew that the same Michael Jordan who adorns their sneakers and T-shirts was influenced by practices that emanated from America’s Mental Health & Wellness Corridor? The Insight Meditation Society in Barre is one of the most influential centers for the learning, teaching and practice of meditation in the U.S. Yes, their paths crossed with MJ.

Parents struggle to find the “right” words to teach children how to speak up if they know someone in crisis. Wouldn’t advocating for those at risk be easier if our culture spoke of the example of 19th-century mental health reformer Dorothea Dix? As a teen, Dix created a school in Worcester and learned how to lead. By the mid-1800s, Dix had investigated abusive treatment of those with mental illness and traveled thousands of miles to educate legislatures across America to lobby for help. If you see something, say something.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Innovative efforts like the Culture, Health, & Wellbeing Alliance in the U.K. are pointing to the possibility that deepening a wellness culture can help offset the ability of a mental health crisis to reproduce itself. Any serious attempt to create a wellness culture here would require a cross-cultural coalition inclusive of institutions, venues and activities where culture-building occurs: our schools, museums, theaters, professional sports teams, youth sports and more.

The Places of Invention exhibition (closed in July) at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History illuminated how certain regions at certain times have been the locus for great innovation, and how innovation and culture co-create one another. America’s Mental Health & Wellness Corridor already has a culture of innovation in the realm of mental health and wellness. We have even given birth to one of the most ubiquitous pop culture icons: the smiley face.

Let’s elevate Worcester’s history of mental health innovation as a platform for building a wellness culture that improves and saves lives in the 21st century.

Paul M. Piwko and Alexandra P. Orlandi are co-founders of the National Museum of Mental Health Project, Inc. which seeks to locate a campus in the region. They first presented about America’s Mental Health & Wellness Corridor at a National Park Service event.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester County's role in shaping mental health innovations in US