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In recent weeks the mental health crisis devastating our nation’s youth has been getting much-needed attention from the local and national press. For young people, and for the parents, educators, health professionals, scientists, and others who interact with people under the age of 25 on a regular basis, it feels like it’s about time we focused on this growing crisis.
We have seen firsthand how young people struggle increasingly under the weight of misogyny, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression. We see how record levels of economic inequality, an ever-increasing climate disaster, stagnant wages, crippling student loan debt, lack of healthcare, food insecurity, unaffordable housing and gun violence erode their wellbeing and safety.
Experts in youth mental health have been raising the alarm for years as reported symptoms of mental illness have skyrocketed, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth and youth of color (especially Black and Indigenous youth). In 2021, Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a youth mental health state of emergency due to record numbers of children and youth experiencing mental health crises. In 2021, nearly one-quarter of U.S. high school students had seriously considered attempting suicide and one in 10 high school students had attempted suicide. In the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 60% of college students met criteria for a mental health problem — a 50% rise since 2013. Students of color were the least likely to connect with mental health providers despite having the biggest increase in mental health challenges.
This youth mental health crisis prompted the Colorado Legislature to increase funding for mental health services and specifically for youth mental health services in 2021 and 2022, and there are myriad mental health-related bills moving through the Legislature in 2023. The City of Boulder recently allocated $2.5 million to stabilize and expand the mental health staff workforce needed to serve Boulder community members. But many of these changes are years away from having any impact, and given the dearth of training programs that equip mental health providers with the knowledge of how systemic oppression interacts with mental health and the tools needed to address the inequities in our healthcare system, they are unlikely to help the youth and young adults who are most in need of mental health services.
As peers, caregivers, relatives, friends and community members, these statistics may leave you wondering: What can we do?
One solution often ignored by adults in positions of authority and power is to listen to and support the inherent wisdom of youth and young adults.
Gen Z is in a better place than even Millennials in terms of their openness to talking about mental health, but it is still seen as scary and taboo. In our own community we can see examples of young adults creating spaces to talk about their experiences with mental health on their own terms, through community-centered programs that raise awareness and build connections. Creativity Alive’s SEEN collaboration, a high-school led, mental health-focused arts project will open at Ozo on East Pearl this Friday, April 7 at 5:30 p.m.
On Saturday, April 8, Project Kind, led by one of the authors (CU senior Evangelyne Eliason), will be raising awareness about mental health and suicide prevention through a 5K run/walk/roll (11 a.m.) and an open mic night/talent showcase (6 p.m.; register here: bit.ly/ProjectKind). The 5K event is open to the entire community and is intended to encourage everyone to practice getting outside, moving around and taking care of themselves, all things that are especially hard to do when people are experiencing mental health struggles. The open mic night/talent showcase is also open to the public (and local singers, poets and performers) and is intended to help people find a way to process and express their experiences with mental health through different art forms.
We often think of the experience of mental illness and the treatment of mental health problems at the level of individuals, but the inherent wisdom of youth-led and youth-centered efforts is in their recognition that a crisis arising from increasingly challenging societal problems needs solutions that are grounded in community.
We hope you will show up to support these youth-led activities and those that will follow. We hope you will also support groups in the community that are youth- and young adult-led and community-centered, such as Natural Highs, the Center for African and African-American Studies, and Out Boulder County’s youth programs. Our youth and young adults need more from our community than simply allocating money to behavioral health services that help them cope with the existential threats prior generations created. They need our solidarity, and our support for their solutions.
Ms. Evangelyne Eliason is a senior at the University of Colorado Boulder majoring in Psychology and minoring in Political Science & Sociology who researches healing among marginalized youth for the Voice of Healing project at the Renee Crown Wellness Institute and is the organizer of Project Kind. Dr. Nicole Speer is a Director of Research Services for the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado Boulder and a member of Boulder City Council. She has studied and published research on college student mental health. Both authors are writing in their personal capacities, and encourage readers to get comfortable asking the people in their lives some version of two critical questions in suicide prevention (“Have you thought about hurting yourself?” and “Do you have a plan?”), as well as to know that 988 is the number to call to reach the 24/7 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
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