Next CN+R/Our Chatham forum to focus on teen mental health

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The Chatham News + Record and Our Chatham are pleased to announce that the next “One Chatham” forum will focus on teen mental health in Chatham County.

The event, scheduled for 7-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, will be a follow-up to the release of “The Age of Anxiety,” the first season of the new podcast “The Chatcast.” Episodes of the 10-part series, which was released on December 13, 2019, have been listened to more than 500 times since release day.

The forum will be held in the Holmes Meeting Room at the Chatham Community Library in Pittsboro.

Four panelists are already scheduled to attend:

• Chatham Charter School sophomore Abigail Holmes, 15, who was featured prominently in the podcast

• Wilder Horner, social work supervisor with the Chatham County Department of Social Services

• George Greger-Holt, community outreach coordinator of Chatham Drug Free

• Tracy Fowler, executive director of student support services with Chatham County Schools

According to the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 1 in 3 Chatham high schoolers report experiencing symptoms of depression and 1 in 9 say they have attempted suicide. The numbers are higher than national statistics, but not by much — they echo problems all of America is facing. Like the podcast, the forum will focus on exploring why teenagers deal with mental health issues at such a high rate and what steps Chatham County can take to push back against these problems.

News + Record Reporter Zachary Horner and Our Chatham Reporter Adrianne Cleven — the team that created and produced “The Age of Anxiety” — will serve as forum moderators.

“I’m really excited about getting these people in one room and hashing out some of the ideas we talked about on the podcast as a community,” Horner said. “I hope that Chatham residents who attend understand that not only is teen mental health something we need to take seriously, but that there are tools and resources available that we can take advantage of right now.”

Horner and Cleven will ask questions, but we’re also taking questions from the community. Submit your questions to chathamchatcast@gmail.com and they might be asked at the forum.

Visit chathamnewsrecord.com/chatcast to find links to “The Age of Anxiety” on various podcasts apps and read up on how the podcast was made and why teen mental health was the chosen topic for the first season.