Mental health in youth is an ongoing critical issue within the United States; however, initiatives focused on shifting the narrative around youth mental health are also emerging – from crisis to capability. Mental Health America’s Supporting Young Minds materials for 2025-2026 are geared towards equipping young people with tools to fight feelings of hopelessness, build resilience, and have a sense of control over their own lives.
While traditionally, youth mental health campaigns have centered on highlighting risks; Supporting Young Minds will instead be focused on highlighting the strengths of young people, such as creativity, peer support, and advocacy.
The Supporting Young Minds toolkit offers various resources about coping with large emotions, navigating stress associated with school, and asking for help without shame. Additionally, it will provide adults (parents and teachers) with guidance on serving as ‘allies, not experts by listening to kids rather than lecturing to them. The overall intent of this tool is to foster a culture where discussing youth mental health is not viewed as taboo but as a common everyday conversation in families, classrooms, and online.
The data supporting this campaign are alarming; results from mental health screenings conducted by MHA’s online tools indicate that large numbers of teens have high levels of depressed moods and thoughts of suicide. Many kids indicated feelings of being overwhelmed or feeling alone. Supporting Young Minds seeks to create community, through clubs, online groups, and youth-led initiatives that will give young people the sense of being seen and appreciated, and also empower them to create positive changes.
The opinion of mental health experts regarding youth mental health initiatives indicates that these initiatives require more than a single day focused on public awareness and social media hashtags. More appropriately, a focus must be placed on enhancing the number of school counselors and using trauma-informed education; allowing for flexible attendance and incorporating the mental health (or psychosocial) issues that young people currently experience into the curriculum. Supporting Young Minds’ primary message is simple yet revolutionary: youth mental health is not fixing ‘broken kids’; it is creating safe spaces for youth to express how they feel, what they want and who they are; thereby allowing them to develop healthy identities.
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