Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, M.D., professor of medicine (left), and Steven Schlozman, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (right)

(JANUARY 3, 2025) Vermont Public’s Vermont This Week podcast featured an expert panel discussing the state of youth mental health in the state. Vermont’s latest statewide survey of middle and high school students has intensified concerns about the issue.

The panel, moderated by Vermont Public’s Mitch Wertlieb, included Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, M.D., professor of medicine and associate dean for graduate medical education; Steven Schlozman, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UVM Larner College of Medicine and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families; and Dana Kaplan, Executive Director of Outright Vermont.

“We have to give kids actionable things that can make stuff better,” Schlozman emphasized. “The worst thing on earth is to be a teenager and be told things are really bad and there’s nothing you can do about it.”