Elmo’s Wellness Check Reveals Mental Health System’s Fault Lines
In this issue: The famed Muppet turns therapist, California voters could fund expanded mental health care, and The Atlantic reminds readers that therapy doesn't have to be a life sentence.
A lot has been said about what happened when Elmo innocently did a check-in with his audience on the site formerly known as Twitter. "How is everybody doing?" he wondered. The post went viral as people told Elmo about their feelings of depression and financial hardships. The media largely covered it with a tinge of gallows humor. Elmo's question uncovered existential dread, according to NBC. It opened a "yawning chasm of despair," The New York Times wrote. And MSNBC said that users trauma-dumped on the red puppet. The post was viewed more than 175 million times.
Few outlets connected the dots between the responses Elmo received and the current state of mental healthcare in the country. One that did was Axios, which cited the rise in mental health care spending and the high rates of loneliness in the U.S.
Then things got murky and ridiculous as comedians poked fun at Elmo's turn as national therapist. "Trauma me Elmo" was in…