Youth mental health crisis: What's next?

Abstract

In 2021 came the initial alarms of a crisis in youth mental health from the Surgeon General and Pediatric Health Organizations. The concerns were well grounded given the substantial declines in youth well-being as indicated by several national surveys, for example, Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), National Survey of Children's Health (NSDUH). Of course, the fall off in youth mental health did not begin with the COVID 19 era but demonstrated a steady increase (for teen depression almost 0.9 yearly) since 2012 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC, 2023a). The COVID 19 pandemic accelerated these trends and added awareness of the impact of social distancing measures, markedly how they disrupted typical social interactions and presented challenges in academics, physical health,