To Solve the Youth Mental Health Crisis, We Need a Comprehensive Conversation

By Steve Bullock, January Contreras, Carlos Curbelo
February 26, 2025

Imagine you have a plant that just won’t grow. You consider the various factors that could be causing the plant to struggle – lack of water, inadequate sunlight, insufficient nutrients, suboptimal soil quality, or temperature. Ultimately, you decide to focus primarily on watering it. You end up overwatering your plant, and it continues to struggle. While your intention is good – you want your plant to grow – focusing on a single facet of the challenge limits your ability to solve the problem.

When it comes to one of society’s most pressing challenges – youth mental health and wellbeing – it’s crucial to recognize that challenges with such complexity cannot be attributed to (or solved by) a single factor. Just like the plant, which requires a balanced environment to flourish, our youth face myriad and interrelated challenges that require an earnest and comprehensive evaluation.