In response to rising anxiety and depression among residents, the City of Hartford is partnering with the mental health app, , and West Hartford's wellness nonprofit, , officials announced on Tuesday.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen mental health issues manifesting themselves in so many different ways,鈥� said Luke Bronin, mayor of Hartford. 鈥淧ersonal disputes that escalate to road rage, to absenteeism in our schools and at the workplace, to domestic violence, and community gun violence.鈥�
Hartford residents, students, city employees, and Hartford Public Schools employees will get free access to mindfulness and meditation resources on the Headspace app. Headspace will also partner with the city to help identify available self-care resources and gaps, develop partnerships with local employers and health plans to cultivate a citywide culture of mindfulness and self-care, and measure outcomes through an impact study.
Wizdom Powell, chief purpose officer at Headspace, said the free one-year subscription to the app will include 鈥減ersonalized content recommendations that we鈥檙e going to work with city leaders to produce. We鈥檙e going to actually map spaces and places around the city where you can congregate to feel more mindful, calm, and protected.鈥�
Copper Beech Institute will provide self-care and mental wellness training for city employees, with a specific focus for employees from the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation, and the Hartford Public Library. The nonprofit will also host mindfulness pop-ups at citywide public events.
The initiative also includes a partnership with the to create public art that reinforces the importance of mental wellness and self-care.
But some residents are skeptical, given the scale of the underlying problems that result in stress.
Cate Vallone, a pilates instructor and Hartford resident, said that to her, mindfulness is a 鈥渉igh-level skill.鈥� 鈥淧eople seek out meditation and mindfulness when they want to thrive and grow,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ot when they are in survival mode. People in our city are stuck in survival mode 鈥� jobs are hard to find, money is hard to find, and mindfulness is not going to solve the problem.鈥�
Another Hartford resident, Molly Lantagne, an art teacher, said it鈥檚 good that the city is setting funding aside for mental health. 鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 think this is a one solution problem,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ccess to health care won鈥檛 be solved with an app and many people in need may not even have access to Wi-Fi or phones.鈥�
Lantagne said people need coping strategies and apps aren鈥檛 for everyone. 鈥淭hey need to be used routinely and habitually and I just don鈥檛 see the people that may need mental health aid the most having the self discipline and motivation to use an app daily.鈥�
