Addressing the mental health issues of young people has never been more critical. The consensus among public health experts is that the pandemic only accelerated a steadily worsening prognosis for the mental health of adolescents in the U.S.
At the top of the list for at-risk groups is teen girls. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control conducted a survey and found 57 percent of girls “felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities” – twice the rate for boys. That’s a 60 percent increase since 2011.
Thirty percent of high school girls have “seriously considered attempting suicide,” according to the same survey.
For all U.S. high schoolers, persistent sadness or hopelessness rose from 26 to 42 percent between 2009 and 2021, according to the CDC.
Youth are in need of support, and the Franklin County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is listening.
It has expanded its programming and aims to empower youth to better manage their own mental health and the mental health of their peers.
“We as adults have to listen,” says Rachelle A. Martin, executive director of NAMI Frankin County. “The only way we are going to get our youth to accept us and understand us is by listening to build that trust, so that we can show them respect and they can respect us.”
Starting in 2018, NAMI Franklin County has been offering the Ending the Silence program to schools and individuals.
The evidence-based program is designed for high and middle schoolers to teach them about mental health issues. The free presentation is designed for three types of audiences: students,
school staff and families.
“We have to find another way to get to our kids now to help them, because they are struggling with so many issues,” Martin says. “Can you imagine being on social media and being bullied? That is something that we never dreamed of happening.”
During the first year of the program, NAMI served 9,000 students. The numbers declined during the pandemic, but are coming back now, Martin says.
Sources of Strength is another program offered by NAMI Franklin County. The evidence-based, upstream prevention program applies a strength-based approach to suicide prevention. Martin says the organization hopes to earn a grant to offer Mental Health First Aid, a skills-based training course, in schools so teachers can be certified.
“Over these past few years, we have seen more families needing care for their kids,” Martin says. “Because they are calling, having serious problems. And if they are 18 years of age, the children have the right to say, ‘I’m not doing what you’re telling me.’ So we have seen a serious uptick.”
Martin believes the poor mental health of teen girls – who are three times as likely as boys to experience depression, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health – is due to lower self-esteem, whether that comes from bullying, social media or elsewhere.
Studies have also indicated greater rates of rumination and perfectionism, which are both risk factors for depression.
Trauma and violence are also potential factors gleaned from the CDC survey: 20 percent of girls say they were electronically bullied in 2021, compared to 11 percent of boys. Fourteen percent of girls reported being forced to have sex, compared to 4 percent of boys.
Black girls, especially, are in need of support, Martin says.
“We have to get to the core of the Black girl who is really struggling,” she says.
Deaths by suicide among Black adolescent girls increased 182 percent from 2001 to 2017, according to a study published in the Journal of Community Health.
Locally, Black Girl Rising, Inc., a nonprofit founded by Fran Frazier, has created mental health campaigns for Black girls and conducted research to explore the unique experience of Black adolescent girls in urban areas.
Nearly 70 percent of LGBTQ-identifying high schoolers said they felt persistently sad or hopeless when asked in the CDC survey, and 45 percent have seriously considered attempting suicide.
If you or a loved one are in crisis, dial 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline.
Claire Miller is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at cmiller@cityscenemediagroup.com.
