About Us

Clay Center Goals

The Clay Center’s mission is to promote well-being by reducing, preventing, and de-stigmatizing youth mental health conditions through education.

Parents and caring adults play a critical role in a child’s development and well-being. The Clay Center is your go-to educational resource for trusted, practical, engaging content to help you support the mental health of young people in your life.

All of our content is written by our child psychiatrists and delivered in a variety of multimedia formats, including articles, a podcast, and short videos, webinars, school curricula, and more. We share information in an easy-to-understand manner, and continually update it based on new research, current events, and user feedback.

Why Public Health Education?

Around 1 in 4 people experience a mental disorder in any given year, and as many as 1 in 2 over the course of their lifetime. Moreover, a majority of disorders begin in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood: 75% of mental health conditions develop before age 25, and 50% begin before age 14. Mental health conditions are more common than strep throat.

Despite the prevalence, stigma remains widespread. In addition, there is an extreme shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians to meet the growing demand for services. This stark need fueled Dr. Gene Beresin’s belief in the power of public mental health education to make a difference.

Our Center’s strength and credibility are derived from the expertise of our core team — Gene Beresin, MD, MA and Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH — and our close affiliation with the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. We also draw from an extensive community of local and global clinical experts allowing us to cover a range of topics, from psychiatric disorders, general pediatric concerns, learning differences, and the impact of digital media and societal concerns.

We invite you to explore our content, and learn more about our team. If there are topics you think we should cover, please let us know.

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We do not provide clinical services or referrals for treatment, but many other organizations do! Please visit our “Where To Turn” page for support treatment resources.

Did you know? We are funded by visitors like you. Your support helps us continue our mission of making reliable mental health education available to individuals and communities everywhere.