America Is Stressed. What Can Camp Do About It?

In her second year on staff, Maggie knew quite well that her own anxiety and depression wouldn’t magically disappear when she walked into the Canyon. “You kind of have this hope and expectation that it won’t follow you,” she said. But it does.

Last summer, Maggie anticipated camp as an opportunity to heal. She’d struggled with her mental health, to the point of self-harm. Getting away into the sanctuary of the Canyon seemed like the perfect antidote.

Instead, she said, the sanctuary soon became a bubble where she couldn’t escape her insecurities as she met new people, wondered if they liked her, worried that she wasn’t doing a good job, and eventually longed to leave.

America is Stressed Out

Her generation, Gen Z, is bombarded with messages and worries. The sheer volume of information and influence coming at them from around the world makes it seem like something is always wrong, Maggie said, either with the world or with you.

Social media influencers get views by promoting unattainable lifestyles. Activists, politicians, and even pastors keep a steady flow of content on their social media channels telling ordinary kids they need to fight harder, care more, and be better. And for all that connection, young people are lonelier than ever—achieving in isolation, competing instead of connecting.

The crisis is bad enough that the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has publicly called for a warning label on social media sites. This is the world Gen Z inherited, not the world they created, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to escape it.

Knowing that some support staff and even many campers are coming to the Canyon with a heavy load already weighing on their young shoulders, H. E. Butt Foundation President David Rogers saw not only a problem in need of a solution, but a calling.

Staff like Maggie helped humanize the stats for him. “The numbers tell us mental wellness is becoming a challenge in our culture. Our American systems and institutions aren’t able to keep up with the changes that are stressing people out,” David said.

The first young people who came to mind for David were the 300 college students who work in the Canyon during the summer, but ultimately he is thinking about one million camp staff across the country and the campers whose lives they will touch. David and the camp directors began to wonder what it would be like if working at camp could offer a formational experience not only in fun, friendship, and service, but also in wellness.

Could Camp Be an Agent of Change for Mental Health?

In 2019, after he saw some early success in Laity Lodge Camping Programs, David started to dream bigger—what if every camp in Texas, every camp in the United States even, created a supportive environment for mental health?

“We started asking, who else is thinking about this?” said David. He learned that the American Camp Association had been working for over a decade with the Alliance for Camp Health to create a healthy camp committee that was talking about MESH—mental, emotional, and social health—as a way to enhance the quality of the experiences campers and staff have in the camp environment.

Led by the Research and Education division at American Camp Association (ACA), a group of industry leaders and subject matter experts convened at Laity Lodge in the spring of 2021. At that point, several groups had begun approaching the issue, each from their own angle, said John Hamilton, chief strategy and engagement officer for the Alliance for Camp Health.

Getting them all in the same room allowed the group to think more broadly about what kind of program would be most effective in the camp context. While his group was thinking about what trauma-informed care might look like at camp, it made sense to incorporate that knowledge into the larger goal of wellbeing.

Wellbeing is more than just functionality or a state of non-illness. It’s a positive sense of social, emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, and environmental integration that allows a person to engage with and enjoy life. With wellbeing in mind, the group designed a pilot for CampWell, a three-tiered training program to cultivate extensive buy-in from camp leadership, a six-hour intensive training for full-time staff, and an introductory tone-setting training for summer staff.

This looks, in part, like the training summer staff received in the Frog Sullivan Pavilion at Echo Valley, just over a week before campers would arrive. It was about 15 minutes into the 90-minute session when licensed clinical social worker Hilary Monford asked about anxiety and depression.

The sight of every staff member standing in the pavilion illustrates the situation in society at large. While experts disagree on the precise causes of the crisis, most agree that social media, existential concerns about the future of the planet, and a polarized and fragmented society all play a role in the epidemic levels of mental unhealth among young people. In 2023, the Center for Disease Control reported that in the decade before the pandemic, “feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness—as well as suicidal thoughts and behaviors—increased by about 40% among young people.”

Does Increasing Awareness Also Raise Anxiety?

“What is nice is that your generation talks about mental health a lot more easily than mine,” Monford said. At the same time, she said, it is important to differentiate between strong feelings and acute mental health challenges. Making that distinction internally is important, and it will help staff not overreact to the strong feelings they encounter with campers.

Maggie was able to meet regularly with Monford last summer, and she credits that openness and support not only with helping her finish out last year, but also helping her decide to come back this year. She changed to a role that was less demanding of her anxiety. Rather than making her feel like a broken outsider who didn’t belong at camp, Monford’s advice helped Maggie see that whoever she was, and however she felt, she was welcome. It helped her find the right role and a way she could contribute while honoring her own wellbeing.

People are the most critical part of a mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy environment. Summer staff—85 percent of whom are college students on their summer break—can empathize, actively listen, and stay present when someone—like a camper— is struggling. Directors can do the same when summer staff find themselves sad, angry, or exhausted. Peers can do this for each other.

People are the most critical part of a mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy environment.

The goal of CampWell is for everyone involved in camps to feel safe and supported while connecting and contributing.

Their job in moments of emotional intensity is not to assess or diagnose anyone or to dig in too deep, Monford told the students. They were not hired to be therapists, and it is important to know when to call in a director. Staff are simply called to listen, empathize, and remind the camper or fellow staff member that they are loved, unconditionally. Monford told staff, “If you have the honor moment, where the Lord puts you in that position, this is what you’re doing.”

Camp is full of opportunities to step out of your comfort zone. Whether conquering a fear of heights on a ropes course or participating in a silly skit in front of the entire camp, most kids will find that there’s something in the course of the session that makes them a little nervous. Knowing that they are surrounded by people who care about them and want them to thrive, staff and campers alike can embrace the discomfort of growth. Not every “bad” feeling is a sign of a mental health emergency. Sometimes it’s a sign that we’re doing more than we ever thought we could, and our brains are looking for reassurance that we’ll be safe and loved, even if we fail.

Challenge by Choice

All emotions are welcome, and discomfort is an opportunity for growth, Monford explained to the staff, but it’s important to recognize when “challenge” becomes “panic.” The continuum is based on the concept of “challenge by choice” developed by pioneering ropes course and outdoor learning group Project Adventure.

Staff can use that simple phrase with campers to let them know that while they are being asked to stretch themselves, they are fully supported if they decide to sit out of a ropes course challenge or group game they find overwhelming.

CampWell is built on the belief that there are six aspects of health that contribute to a person’s overall wellness: emotional, spiritual, mental, social/community, environmental, and physical. Monford asked the staff to consider which of these is the first one to falter for them, the most difficult to maintain. Of course, this leads to a discussion of how each affects the other, and how difficult it is to feel emotionally well, for example, when sleep deprived, sick, or hungry.

CampWell is built on the belief that there are six aspects of health that contribute to a person’s overall wellness: emotional, spiritual, mental, environmental, social, and physical.

Displayed as six petals on a flower, these aspects of health speak to the overall mission of the Foundation in important ways. Howard Butt Jr. was open about his own struggles with depression long before it was common, especially for men, to do so. His intuitive understanding that being in a beautiful natural setting with attention to spiritual health has led to much of the programming in the Canyon today.

His mother, Mary Elizabeth Holdsworth Butt, also imbued the Foundation with a commitment to social and physical health. Taken all together, the petals of the flower represent a broader picture of flourishing, and, David Rogers believes, camps have a large part to play for the rising generations.

In Texas alone, 6,000-8,000 students are hired to work at summer camps every year. At recommended ratios, this puts the number of summer campers between 30,000-40,000. By steeping camp culture in wellness, David reasoned, these thousands would return to school and college campuses with a contagious commitment. Camp is already formational. If you’ve ever known a young person before and after their first summer on staff at camp, you know how transformational it can be. What if, Rogers reasoned, part of that transformation was the potential to spread healthy, empathetic, compassionate ways of interacting? What might that do to ease the loneliness and isolation plaguing young people?

“Personally, I think that CampWell is transforming the industry,” Hamilton said. “The outcomes of our work are seeping into camp cultures around the country.”

Getting CampWell training to more camps became a priority almost immediately. In 2024 ACA’s research and education division will get a baseline measurement to determine what each participating camp planned to implement, as well as what was actually implemented. ACA will then collect data on how staff and campers characterize their wellbeing and track staff-reported incidents that have to do with mental wellbeing. From this baseline, the partners will be able to measure the growth not only in number of camps reached, but the effectiveness of the program as well.

So far 75 camps have had their full-time staff participate in the six-hour intensive training, Hamilton said, and he expects to see many more as word gets out.