How Employment Programs and Lawmakers Can Support Youth Mental Health

A new report released by the Nation­al Youth Employ­ment Coali­tion (NYEC) uses find­ings from a nation­al sur­vey to deter­mine how youth employ­ment pro­grams and law­mak­ers can bet­ter sup­port the men­tal health of young peo­ple. Iden­ti­fy­ing Gaps in Youth Employ­ment Pro­grams’ Capac­i­ty to Address Men­tal Health Needs, fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, pro­vides impor­tant insights into the state of young work­ers’ men­tal health as well as ways employ­ment pro­grams and pol­i­cy­mak­ers can take action.

“The men­tal well-being of young adults is vital for career sat­is­fac­tion, reten­tion and growth,” says Rashaun Ben­nett, direc­tor of oper­a­tions at the Nation­al Youth Employ­ment Coalition.

Key Find­ings From the NYEC Survey

The report details sev­er­al impor­tant sur­vey findings:

• Youth are often unable to access men­tal health ser­vices. Most respon­dents indi­cat­ed that less than half of the youth they work with can access men­tal health sup­port in their com­mu­ni­ty when they need it.
• Anx­i­ety and depres­sion are the most com­mon men­tal ill­ness­es among youth. Almost every respon­dent report­ed observ­ing anx­i­ety and depres­sion among the young peo­ple they work with.
• Most pro­grams do not have a process for screen­ing or mon­i­tor­ing men­tal health. While 60% of respon­dents esti­mat­ed that many of the youth they work with need men­tal health assis­tance, 64% indi­cat­ed that they do not have a for­mal screen­ing or mon­i­tor­ing process for pro­gram par­tic­i­pants. In addi­tion, 72% of respon­dents report­ed that they do not track whether par­tic­i­pants need men­tal health services.
• Most employ­ment pro­grams do not have enough resources for staff men­tal health train­ing. Of the 235 respons­es from orga­ni­za­tions that pro­vide direct ser­vices to youth, only 12% believed they had suf­fi­cient resources to pro­vide qual­i­ty men­tal health train­ing for their staff.

In addi­tion to the sur­vey, the NYEC also con­duct­ed four focus groups made up of youth ages 16–26, enrolled in youth employ­ment pro­grams. The find­ings from these focus groups deter­mined sev­er­al fac­tors have wors­ened the youth men­tal health crisis:

• stress relat­ed to school, finances, employ­ment and COVID-19 pan­dem­ic-relat­ed isolation;
• cul­tur­al stig­mas about men­tal ill­ness and men­tal health services;
• inabil­i­ty to access men­tal health services;
• lack of adult support;
• inabil­i­ty to access trans­porta­tion; and
• lack of funds to pay for men­tal health services.

Rec­om­men­da­tions for Meet­ing Youth Men­tal Health Challenges

The report con­cludes with sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions for how youth employ­ment providers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers can active­ly incor­po­rate aware­ness of men­tal health chal­lenges into their work with young people:

• Address the root caus­es of the youth men­tal health cri­sis. These include dis­crim­i­na­tion, gen­er­a­tional trau­ma that is passed from par­ents to their chil­dren, afford­able hous­ing and eco­nom­ic inequality.
• Be proac­tive about young people’s men­tal health. Pro­grams should encour­age men­tal health screen­ings for new par­tic­i­pants and increase train­ing for pro­gram staff so they can iden­ti­fy men­tal health warn­ing signs among young people.
• Use new and exist­ing leg­is­la­tion. Law­mak­ers must cre­ate new poli­cies that increase the men­tal health ser­vices avail­able to young peo­ple while using fed­er­al, state and local resources ― such as the Work­force Inno­va­tion and Oppor­tu­ni­ty Act ― to sup­port youth enrolled in employ­ment programs.

How the NYEC Sur­vey Was Developed

The sur­vey was devel­oped in response to a 2021 advi­so­ry report from U.S. Sur­geon Gen­er­al Vivek H. Murthy, which not­ed alarm­ing trends in the men­tal health of young peo­ple that have only wors­ened since the begin­ning of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. The NYEC con­duct­ed the sur­vey in 2022 and col­lect­ed 563 respons­es from youth employ­ment pro­gram prac­ti­tion­ers across 49 states. The sur­vey was designed to determine: 

• the readi­ness of youth employ­ment pro­grams to respond to the youth men­tal health crisis;
• the men­tal health resources avail­able to these programs;
• the process­es and sys­tems pro­grams have in place to fight the cri­sis; and
• what assis­tance pro­grams need to effec­tive­ly man­age the men­tal health of those they serve.

“Men­tal health is brought up as a pri­or­i­ty issue by many of the youth and young adults we speak to in work­force devel­op­ment pro­grams,” says Dina Emam, a pro­gram asso­ciate with the Casey Foundation’s Employ­ment, Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing unit. ​“The data high­light­ed in the NYEC’s lat­est report shows how impor­tant it is for young peo­ple to have sup­port avail­able when they are fac­ing chal­lenges to their men­tal health, both in and out of the work­place. To suc­ceed, pro­gram prac­ti­tion­ers and advo­cates will need to col­lab­o­rate and devel­op cre­ative solu­tions that best sup­port new work­ers nav­i­gat­ing these challenges.”

Learn More About the Men­tal Health Chal­lenges Faced by Youth Across the Country