PBS Television Station WETA

This grant supported partial funding to the PBS television station WETA, based in Washington, DC, to produce a prime-time documentary series, Hiding in Plain Sight: Our Mental Health Crisis, with award-winner Ken Burns as executive producer. The series aired in June 2022 and was presented on more than 330 PBS stations nationwide.

The two-part, four-hour documentary series follows 21 young people and their unique mental health journeys, giving them a platform to discuss their personal experiences with a variety of mental health challenges. The film also features experts, advocates, counselors, educators, and families and friends of these individuals to drive home the fact that people everywhere face these challenges and to ultimately provide a message of hope and resilience.

This series was part of WETA’s Well Beings national campaign, which launched in July 2020 and addressed the health needs of Americans using public media. The campaign kicked off with the Youth Mental Health Project, which consisted of original broadcast and digital content, featuring the documentary series. The Youth Mental Health Project also held a national tour consisting of community events, workshops, social media campaigns, and mental health resources for the public from project partners.

This grant supported the Dana Education objective to support sustained informal education that aims to strengthen knowledge of neuroscience and its connections to society and empower people of all ages to use that knowledge in their every day lives.