World Mental Health Day Festival MainStage: America's Fraying Social Fabric

About the Event

Last May, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published an advisory, warning that a growing “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” threatens Americans’ personal health and also the health of our democracy. Murthy reported that, even before COVID, about half of all American adults were experiencing substantial levels of loneliness. Over the past two decades, Americans have spent significantly more time alone, engaging less with family, friends, and people outside the home. By 2018, just 16% of Americans said they felt very attached to their local community.

An “epidemic of loneliness” may sound abstract at a time when our democracy faces concrete and imminent threats, but the Surgeon General’s report helps explain how we became so vulnerable. In the past, Surgeons General have at crucial moments sounded the alarm about major crises and drawn our attention to underappreciated threats, including smoking, HIV/AIDS, and obesity. This is one of those moments.

The Surgeon General’s warning echoes the findings of other researchers who have studied these trends for decades. In his influential 2000 book, Bowling Alone, the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam showed that Americans’ social ties and support networks collapsed in the second half of the 20th century. Many of the activities and relationships that had defined and sustained previous generations, such as attending religious services and joining unions, clubs, and civic organizations—even participating in local bowling leagues—were disappearing. Putnam’s more recent work shows that these trends have only gotten worse in the early decades of the 21st century, and that they go hand in hand with intensifying political polarization, economic inequality, loss of trust in government, and a shift in the national attitude from “we’re all in this together” to “you’re on your own.”

In this conversation, we'll explore the underlying forces that are driving these trends, what it means for America, and where we need to go from here.

About World Mental Health Day Festival
The Project Healthy Minds World Mental Health Day Festival is where visionaries, thought leaders, and advocates unite to redefine and reshape the future of mental health. The Festival convenes the most consequential leaders from across public policy, media, culture, sports, business, and the research worlds for groundbreaking conversations about the future of mental health.

From headline-making mainstage fireside chats featuring luminaries like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to cause-driven fitness programming like SoulCycle benefit rides, influencer-led runs, and charity pickleball tournaments to unique meditation sessions to elevated culinary experiences, this is where the world gathers for World Mental Health Day.

About Project Healthy Minds

Project Healthy Minds is a next-gen mental health tech non-profit dedicated to expanding access to mental health services across the country. Project Healthy Minds is building the world’s first free digital mental health marketplace, destigmatizing mental health by partnering with culture-makers, and improving access and affordability by advocating for innovative workplace investments in employee mental health. The non-profit is focused on closing the treatment gap in America by attacking these primary barriers to care: stigma, discoverability, and affordability. Project Healthy Minds’ programmatic initiatives serve more than 200,000 people annually.

Host or Publisher Project Healthy Minds