We Can’t Solve the Youth Mental Health Crisis Without Including Young People

In this op-ed, Saanvi Arora, founder and executive director of The Youth Power Project, explores the need for youth-centered mental health policy solutions, like Senate Resolution 769, and why we must prioritize mental health care for young people.

Amid the endless and often misinformed chatter surrounding mental health, certain populations remain startlingly invisible, especially young people. Mental health discussions primarily remain dominated by adults, with a tone that often generalizes the unique struggles faced by youth, especially with regard to accessibility, stigma, and equity. And that’s leading to a gap in care for young people, who may need it the most.

“A lot of youth aren’t receiving the support they need due to a lack of access and availability in mental health care,” Mary, a Mental Health Policy Specialist at the Youth Power Project, says. In 2022, Mary faced a life-threatening mental health crisis, prompting an emergency room visit, where she says she waited for 13 hours without receiving healthcare due to bed shortages and inefficient hospital management. “It shouldn’t be so hard to find a provider who understands you and can meet your needs,” Mary says about her experience, one that exposes a devastating reality where youth are left stranded in crisis, with care excruciatingly out of reach.

Scarcity in mental healthcare is, in part, rooted in the harmful separation of mental and physical health. Saigel, a Mental Health Policy Associate at Youth Power Project, grew up in a low-income, immigrant community. There, Saigel faced severe anxiety and depression starting at age 12 with troubling school and familial dynamics. “Chronically absent at school, I was often sick due to physical manifestations of my strong anxiety and depression, combined with feeling unsafe at school due to peers,” Saigel says. Despite clear signs, his mental and physical health weren’t considered together, leading to long-term trauma.

Far too often, fractured mental health care systems end up taking the lives of young people with similar struggles; Saigel and Mary took it upon themselves to not only address their mental health issues, but also thrive within a system seemingly engineered against their wellbeing. Long wait times and the absence of culturally competent care are just some examples of how attitudes that dismiss the holistic, far-reaching impacts of mental health further the disparities that leave our most vulnerable continually isolated and unsupported.