KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, was this year’s host for the 92nd annual United States Conference of Mayors.
Housing, public safety, and mental health are just some of the key issues many cities are facing, which is why the nearly 200 mayor-group gathered in downtown KCMO to talk about solutions.
“In Kansas City today, we expect kids who live down the street from a murder to just go to school the next day, be happy, be successful, and just keep it moving,” KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas said. “That is something that, to me, is woefully unacceptable.”
Lucas and the other mayors talked about mental health in teens and in relation to gun violence across multiple cities.
“If any one of us, even those of us with insurance today, were saying I'd like to receive care, there are so many steps, impediments, and barriers," Lucas said. “Imagine if you are a 15- or 16-year-old who's saying, ‘Yeah, I'm sad.'"
Experts in KCMO said we’re still learning how to be OK.
“Having emotions, having feelings, and talking about them is OK — we’re human,” said Shanisha McCay (MC-LPC), who works as a child clinician and therapist at Primitivo Garcia Elementary School in Kansas City.
McCay talked about what she's seen working in the field.
“I have seen a big increase in anxiety in my students,” McCay said. “I've seen a big increase in symptoms of PTSD; I have seen an increase in adjustment disorders as well as depression symptoms and suicidal ideations.”
She said more resources, funding, and play therapy for children is necessary.
“I lost this person, or I heard gunshots or, you know, I'm in the system and I feel this way," she said. “Just talking about it when in other realms they probably wouldn't been able to talk about it.”
But she said talking about our feelings is a simple step that’s often missed.
That’s where nonprofits like the Mattie Rhodes Center try to step in, too.
“I see families that want to be OK, but they don't know how to look for help or how to process that,” Thelma Delarosa, a service coordinator with the Mattie Rhodes Center, said.
Sometimes it’s just realizing that it’s OK to not be OK.
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