Youth Mental Health is everywhere. It’s in the classrooms and living rooms and on virtual spaces. Campaigns are giving our teens language and tools and permission to talk about what they’re going through. A very visible example is the CDC Free Mind Campaign that was rolled out ahead of the 2025-26 school year to promote a conversation about how youth mental health and substance use intersect.
The Campaign is targeted to youth from 12 to 17 and their adults, using various methods (e.g. videos, guides and conversation starters) to talk about stress, depression, anxiety and why some youth turn to alcohol or other drugs to cope. The Campaign is using messaging created with youth, by using the voice and visuals that youth want to see about youth mental health. The overall message is simple, ‘It’s OK to struggle; there are better ways to cope than to numb.’
Advocacy organizations like Mental Health America are providing new resources for parents, teachers and other adult supporters (adult allies) to support young people’s (youth) resilience and sense of self through the use of “Supporting Young Minds,” materials available at their website. Through these resources, youth will be prioritized with mental health support, which will involve adults listening more, validating youth feelings, and providing youth the opportunity to participate in and lead some or all aspects of the design of programs and peer spaces.
For youth, the difference will be illustrated by many of the small, yet significant, changes made in their environment (e.g. A coach asks a player about their stress rather than their performance; A teacher puts a hotline number on the wall of their classroom, or a parent uses the word “campaign” to say, “How is your head/cardiac (heart) doing today?”). Youth mental health advocates have asserted that even the smallest of changes can disrupt the path of silent suffering and move youth away from (with) risky coping mechanisms (substance use or self‑injurious behaviours).
The work we are all doing to improve youth mental health cannot close the gap in access to mental health treatment; however, these youth mental health efforts will create greater normalisation of conversations and visibility and access to concrete resources (school-based mental health providers, community clinics, and 988) to help youth express their needs for assistance through the simple expression of “I need help.”
Source: CDC – Free Mind campaign on youth substance use and mental health, Mental Health America – Supporting young minds
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