Colorado Youth for a Change’s Post

Our children are facing a mental health crisis. 1 in 5 youth experience mental health challenges, yet lack of access to support leaves them struggling in silence. This crisis is further compounded by racial disparities within our education systems. Students of color are disproportionately affected by mental health challenges, yet often lack access to culturally responsive support and resources. This continues to have a devastating impact on their academic success, well-being, and future potential. Educators and mental health professionals within schools are on the frontlines, without the critical resources to provide the needed support. Every child deserves to feel valued and supported in their learning environments, and all other places. That's why we're launching the “Our Right to Smile” campaign, aimed at providing critical resources and support to educators, school-based mental health professionals, and youth. Learn more about this initiative and how we can make a difference together: https://lnkd.in/ew5p_qYA

Young people dealing with #MentalHealth issues face many challenges while trying to navigate #education and #HousingInstability. There is a crucial need for comprehensive support systems combining education, vocational training, mental health services, and accessible housing to help these youth thrive. Vibrant Emotional Health operates Adolescent Skills Center programs in the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan to help. "Preparing Youth with Behavioral Health Needs to Enter the Workforce: A Pathway to Housing" By Jacqueline Brown and Lisa Furst Vibrant Emotional Health Read the article: https://lnkd.in/ebdvaBHb #MentalHealthMatters #HousingStability

I thoroughly enjoy working with youth in Utah's 4-H program, especially my own children. Youth development programs like 4-H can make a big impact on mental health for young people. Check it out! Youth with higher engagement in Utah's 4-H programs are: more likely to learn how to manage academic stress 2X more likely to learn about the harmful effects of drug use almost 2X more likely to resist peer pressure more likely to learn how to responsibly use social media more likely to learn about the importance of mental health

The Play Equity Gap is real. I think a lot of us (myself included) don't always think about or realize that the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of sports and play are not equally accessible to everyone. The work that the LA84 Foundation and the Play Equity Fund does is so important in supporting kids wellbeing, and the idea that all kids deserve the Right to Play. Renata Simril, President and CEO of the LA84 Foundation, recently wrote an op-ed in EdSource that notes the importance of play and the impact it has on mental health in a post-pandemic world. Read the full article below! https://lnkd.in/g8a49D-j #playequity #mentalhealth #youthsports

Young people’s ailing mental health is “the defining public health crisis of our time,” U.S. Surgeon General Murthy recently declared. But too often the crisis’ causes and solutions are treated as universal, with race either ignored or white children’s experiences presented as the norm, said a psychiatry resident at Yale University. “You’re reading about this youth mental health crisis,” she said, “and racism isn’t mentioned, the particular experiences of Black children aren’t mentioned.” Black youth endure unique hardships in addition to the larger forces, such as social media and the pandemic, eroding young people’s mental health. They are likely to face direct discrimination as well as “vicarious racism,” which stems from seeing other Black people subjected to racial abuse. And institutional racism, such as housing discrimination and neighborhood disinvestment, puts Black youth at greater risk of poverty and violence. Those overlapping stressors chip away at Black children’s mental health, yet many don’t receive the mental health support they need. The cost of care and social stigma can be barriers to treatment, along with mistrust of the mental health care system, in which the vast majority of providers are white and often untrained in addressing racism’s steep toll.

Last month, Education Week published an issue on the mental health crisis in our schools - focusing on students and teachers. The statistics and personal stories shared are eye-opening and gut-wrenching. While schools are a part of the equation in supporting stronger mental health, it cannot fall on these institutions exclusively. This is a societal issue that needs to be addressed by the entire community - not just schools. #schools #Education #mentalhealth

While the benefits of high-quality #MentalHealth supports in schools are felt by all students, these services can be particularly impactful for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, & students with disabilities, as they are least likely to have access to mental health supports outside of school. Learn more in our new brief: https://lnkd.in/eurmJR59 #PlantingSEADs

In a few days, many of us will start getting ready for the "back to school," and that is a great time to make sure our children and youth are ready physically and mentally. A new national online survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of On Our Sleeves Movement for Children's Mental Health, warns that the many children who found last school year challenging are likely to be apprehensive this time around. The poll found that 71% of American parents say their children experienced challenges last school year. The top stressors identified by parents are: safety concerns (37%), academic challenges (26%), bullying (24%), ongoing social challenges related to the pandemic (24%), and mental health challenges (22%). The group has checklists and parental guides to start the conversations with their children. https://lnkd.in/gT-xtHkY

This is off the charts significant. If you take this mental navigator concept and expand it to community oriented primary care, asset based community development, dental, geriatric, home visits, child development you are changing populations, health literacies, access, and more. If this becomes a mainstay of foundations and is facilitated by the already in development efforts via Project ECHO telehealth - awesome. Project ECHO is supporting mental health team members, mental health assessment, child development, and educator support in addition to supporting primary care via specialized services supports and numerous training outreaches. Communities forever behind in so many areas must have small armies of teens and young adults who are using such projects as preparation for their serving human infrastructure careers. (Think Civilian Conservation Corps, and we need physical infrastructure building just as much as human infrastructure especially in these counties) The impacts are two ways - those supported and those serving/learning. We need their literacies improved to improve their outcomes and the outcomes of their future family and to combat misinformation. HEALTH CARE INTERVENTIONS will not change outcomes the way that they must be changed. POPULATIONS must be changed to improve health, education, economic, and social outcomes. Interventions earliest in childhoold are best. The 2621 counties most behind across dozens of drivers of outcomes, literacies, and much more need this. The rest of the nation has separated away and is too enmeshed in profit and investment as well as cost cutting designs and micromanagement that nearly always hurts most Americans most behind. Sadly the excess costs and investments will continue to force more Americans to depart areas of excess and millions will continue to go to the 2621 counties that have grown from 32% of the population in 1970 to 40% in 2010 and should reach a majority in the 2060s. The health insurance design prevents more than half enough basic health access for these 2621 counties. The states short them in social supports and public health, often because runaway health care costs are defeating all of the state budgets. Federal designs fail them. CMS Medicare Medicaid has defeated their local leadership by killing off countless health care related jobs and their spouses due to hundreds of hospital closures and countless closures of practices. These jobs and spouses are important in leadership in health care and other areas. Only Hill Burton investments and organization from 1946 to 1997 and the first decade of Medicare and Medicaid have actually helped these counties and the same is true for primary care, mental health, women's health, basic surgical and geriatrics. Vast regions must take control of their health care finances and engineer their own training to shape most and best professionals and delivery team members maximal in continuity and experience - the opposite of current designs