Children are our greatest treasures – all beautifully unique, and all in need of loving protection. After all, a healthy childhood is the foundation for building healthy adults and healthy communities.
While childhood should be a time to feel carefree, secure and happy – for too many children, their lives are burdened. Children today are impacted by the world around them, along with a long list of life’s circumstances and travesties that, if encountered, can deny them the care and protection they deserve.
With studies indicating the increasing numbers of children diagnosed with depression, feeling alone, with mental, emotional and behavioral conditions – a statewide initiative was officially announced at the start of May as Mental Health Awareness Month.
“California Love, California Strong,” led by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, held an event at the Los Angeles Coliseum with youth-led panels including LGBTQ+ college students, mental health information booths and playtime for kids to shoot hoops and jump rope together, offering positive methods and resources to counter isolation, feelings of loneliness and improve mental health.
“This initiative is rooted in fostering a sense of belonging through self-care, social connection and service,” Siebel Newsom described. The mother of four pointed out that mental health is equally important to physical health. The mind, body and soul are all connected.
Very young children, teens and young adults face pressures not experienced by previous generations.
“Even though we are more connected than ever before because of technology, data shows that too many people, especially our teenagers and young adults aged 13 to 29, are feeling very alone,” said Siebel Newsom.
“Snapchats and Instagram stories aside, we’re in the middle of a loneliness epidemic,” said Siebel Newsom. “We know that anxiety rates are skyrocketing globally, not just here in California or the United States, increasing more than 50% for young people since 1990.”
Young people who are now attached to phone screens and video games can suffer the effects of sensory overload and thwart executive functioning and their emotional development.
The fast-moving digital age has applied “artificial” pressure on young minds. In the worst of circumstances, it has tragically led to cyberbullying, exploration of the dark web and self-harm.
Healthy Alternatives
The initiative supports Soluna – a free app for youth between the ages of 13-25 – and BrightLife Kids, designed for younger children.
The apps offer coaching, moderated peer-support spaces and self-guided tools to help with stress, anxiety and everyday challenges.
For younger children, the BrightLife Kids app helps them to express their feelings. Small children are coached to express feeling sad, angry or worry. For older children, the coaching is age-appropriate, helping them to learn to balance their emotions.
The initiative also supports community events at libraries to hold activities that gather young people together to counter isolation and build community.
“Given what’s going on in our country right now, I think what we’re doing together here in California is more important than ever,” said Siebel Newsom.
Political Climate Impacts Youth
The Mundo Maya Foundation was one of the organizations that set up an information booth at the LA launch. Sara Mijares, the founder of the non-profit, said she has worked with the Department of Mental Health, holding peer-based spaces and healing circles.
She understands the extreme trauma that children in the Latino community are currently facing.
The stress can include job and food insecurity endured by parents is felt by their children.
“Through active listening and shared experiences in the native indigenous community, we address trauma and grief,” noted Mijares.
Children of migrant workers have been subjected to the trauma of family separation and financial instability caused by their parents’ deportation.
Scores of children are also currently locked up in poor conditions in detention centers and the impact on their mental health has yet to be fully realized.
While too often kept secret, children may be victims of verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
California’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson said state and local partnerships have brought this work to the ground in communities.
“Talking about mental health can feel hard at times, but today, awareness campaigns about stress management, suicide prevention, adverse childhood experiences have resonated with communities,” she said, adding that young people have helped create the online services and the apps that started two years ago, which have already reached half a million children, youth and families. “The courage shown by them is guiding our work.
“More than 1,600 organizations are conducting over 2,000 activities across the state to advance the mission,” Johnson said. “These are people connecting people, bringing us together in union.”
“Five years ago, the governor and the legislature made one of the largest investments in youth behavioral health in our country,” said Siebel Newsom. “They’ve launched a master plan creating California’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) with services that now include LAUSD schools and organizations.
“California is leading the nation in building a system that recognizes the whole person and meets them where they’re at,” said Siebel Newsom.
She said across the state, there is an “extraordinary village” of thousands of professionals now doing this work that includes wellness coaches, peer support specialists, social workers and doctors available to help children and youth.
“A mental health moment has turned into a mental health movement,” said Johnson.
For more information about the initiative and resources, go to: