Adolescence is a time of high vulnerability to mental health problems. These problems often go hand-in-hand with other health risks like drug use, violence and higher risk sexual behaviors that can lead to HIV/AIDS or unintended pregnancy.
Learn how to better understand and help youth who are struggling with mental health issues. Read more about online screening and treatment options.
Prevention
Supporting youth mental health requires a collaborative approach involving schools, community organizations, and child-serving systems.
Meta-analytic work supports the effectiveness of multimodal prevention strategies targeting adversity factors, including childhood trauma and neglect; family dysfunction; substance abuse; and school-related problem behaviors. Such programs are associated with significantly lower rates of psychosocial difficulties in early adulthood.
Fostering strong connections between children and adolescents is also key. This includes providing safe, supportive and affirming school environments; expanding social and emotional learning programs; ensuring that children spend appropriate amounts of time in non-screen media (e.g., outdoors, with friends); and limiting their access to dangerous substances and devices.
Employers can also play a key role by providing affordable health insurance that covers mental health services, supporting work-life balance, and fostering a positive culture at work. Finally, communities can promote open dialogue about mental health by promoting scientifically accurate information, addressing negative stereotypes and stigma, and educating people on how to seek help for themselves or their loved ones.
Early Intervention
75% of mental disorders emerge before the age of 25 years, and young people bear the major burden – they are most at risk for serious conditions that threaten their future decades of productive adulthood. The past two decades have seen a belated dawn of sound early intervention conceptual frameworks and a gradual shift towards service delivery based on prevention. This has begun in psychotic disorders and the development of specialised youth services – however, much remains to be done to strengthen fidelity and extend the reach of such services across the full diagnostic spectrum.
Prevention strategies include teaching youth healthy ways to manage stress and anxiety, such as mindfulness, journaling, and physical activity, and educating them about the risks of substance abuse. Such efforts also promote a healthy lifestyle, which helps them to build resilience and avoid developing mental health challenges in the first place.
Integrated healthcare approaches that integrate mental, primary, and social care also improve services’ ability to intercept the most vulnerable cases and reduce the need for costly interventions in later stages.
Treatment
The risk of suicide and other types of self-harm rises when a youth’s mental health is poor. This is why it’s important for everyone – including parents and schools – to build strong connections with youth, and to connect them to resources like social and emotional supports and behavioral health services.
For youth who have a mental illness, effective treatment strategies can help them recover and lead fulfilling lives. This can include psychotherapy with an experienced clinician, peer mentoring, family support, and medication.
Employers can play an outsized role in supporting youth mental health by providing comprehensive and affordable health insurance that includes coverage for mental health services, promoting work-life balance, and creating a positive workplace culture that affirms the importance of children and youth’s wellbeing. They can also help address the underlying factors that contribute to employee stress by increasing access to child and adolescent mental health care and improving coordination between youth-serving systems, such as schools, mental health clinics, and juvenile justice settings.
Recovery
Youth who experience mental health challenges are often at increased risk for other behavioral and health risks like drug use, violence and higher-risk sexual behaviors that lead to HIV, pregnancy and unintended sexually transmitted infections (STDs). Fortunately, many of the same prevention strategies that support mental health also help prevent a range of negative life experiences.
Build resilience through exposure to positive community experiences, social connection and education. Encourage young people to develop an internal locus of control by learning to view situations as things they can or cannot influence, rather than as things that have happened to them.
Address misconceptions, bias and stigma through education and outreach efforts led by trusted messengers, including faith leaders, educators, health care professionals, juvenile justice officials, online influencers and media. Educate students, school staff and parents about the importance of supporting mental health. Expand access to school-based mental health services and support staff to deliver them effectively. Provide trauma-informed, culturally responsive care and treatment.