The Biden administration plans to launch a new initiative in the fall to address the serious mental health crisis among America’s youth.
of Youth Mental Health Corpsis the first initiative of its kind to recruit and train young people to support their peers through mental health challenges. Young people, ages 18-24, will be trained and certified to support young people in schools, community organizations and local health clinics, while also building a pipeline for these volunteers to pursue career paths in mental health.
The initiative, created by AmeriCorps, the Schultz Family Foundation and other organizations, will launch in some of the states with the lowest levels of mental health support.
“Too many young people are struggling with their mental health and not getting the help they need. We all have a role to play in supporting young people’s mental health and creating a world where they can thrive,” said US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. statement.
The youth mental health crisis Recent progressis “the defining public health issue of our time,” Murthy said. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey The survey found that the number of young people who had “prolonged feelings of sadness or despair” increased between 2011 and 2021, reaching 42% in 2021.
Expert To tell The rise in mental health problems among young people in the United States may be correlated with the isolation and rejection caused by a lack of real-life interactions and social media use.
“These new platforms are upending social relationships and often leave people feeling alienated and inferior,” Rausch told Huffington Post in April, noting that the evolution of social media between 2009 and 2015 made it “particularly harmful to adolescents.”
Data too show Racism and messaging on social media during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the midst of the 2020 racial justice movements put Black and Indigenous youth of colour at increased risk of developing mental health issues.
But Murphy said the pandemic has only exacerbated already-high rates of mental health issues.
“When we talk to young people directly and also look at the data, we see that before the pandemic, and even 10 years before COVID, youth suicide rates were up 57%,” Murthy said. Said At an event with Axios last month.
The initiative will roll out in four states — Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Texas — later this year and is expected to expand to at least seven other states next year.
according to ForbesIn Minnesota, 56.8% of depressed youth and in Michigan, 60.3% of depressed youth are not receiving mental health services, according to data from Mental Health America and the U.S. Census Bureau. show Texas and Colorado are in the top 10 states with the worst mental health care in the country.
The high rates of mental health issues among young people in the U.S. come at a time when there has been a surge in anti-LGBTQ bills in several states across the country, including four where the initiative will take effect in the fall.
be report A January 2023 survey by The Trevor Project found that 71% of LGBTQ youth said the debate over anti-LGBTQ bills has negatively affected their mental health, and 86% of transgender youth reported negative mental health effects from the bills.
Colorado students, especially LGBTQ youth, feel unaccepted and unable to be themselves at school, but this issue could be addressed through the peer support offered by school corps programs, CPR News reported.
Huffington Post reached out to the governors of Texas, Colorado, Minnesota and Michigan for comment on the effort but did not immediately receive a response.
