The key findings of a summary report of the state’s Youth Listening Tour, held in counties statewide earlier this spring, outlining both findings and recommendations on how to best address the youth mental health crisis was unveiled by Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday.
The Governor released the summary report at the first-ever New York State Summit on Youth Mental Health at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, where she was joined by national mental health experts, youth advocates and providers, parents and caregivers, law enforcement specialists, educators, and over 1,000 attendees to examine the unprecedented mental health challenges many young people face.
The Summit on Youth Mental Health convened leaders, experts, and youth themselves to discuss the findings in the Youth Listening Tour summary report, which included several overall themes such as:
- The impact of the pandemic varied among youth and over time.
- Youth keenly understand the benefits and risks of social media and potential strategies to support healthy use.
- Developing positive peer relationships and social skills is challenging, and youth are calling for multiple school and community-based approaches to assist in the development of interpersonal skills and friendships.
- Youth highly value confidentiality, and why they perceive privacy and confidentiality has been violated it deters youth from developing connections with adults and seeking help.
- Youth prefer mental health interactions with trusted adults who are like them (age, demographics) and reported an overall perception of a lack of empathy and cultural sensitivity in adults.
- Youth want increased accountability for other students, teachers, and school policies.
Based on the findings from the Youth Listening Tour and the discussions held at the Summit on Youth Mental Health, several youth recommendations emerged, including:
- Investing in community-based resources for recreation and mental wellness promotion.
- Youth-vetted training on navigating social media.
- Increased mental health resources that are free/low-cost, confidential, respectful, and culturally competent.
