Mental Health in Children: An Analysis
A brief overview of the scope of this growing public health issue, as well as an outline of initiatives designed to help combat the problem from the newly launched Noralle Alliance for Children’s Mental Health
The threats to children‘s health are varied and widespread, from poor nutrition and contaminated drinking water to cancer and congenital diseases. But one health challenge that many children and young adults cope with in silence is just as prevalent and urgent: mental illness. As documented in our position paper Noralle Addresses the Global Crisis in Children’s Mental Health, depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders affect an increasing number of children, adolescents, and young adults, who often go undiagnosed and untreated, particularly if they live in marginalized communities. The Noralle Alliance for Children’s Mental Health aims to change that.
The Scope of the Problem
In Australia, one in five children—more than 17 million—have a diagnosable mental health disorder by age 181 and the rates are worsening. Adolescent depression has increased by 41% between 2006 and 2014 in Australia alone, and roughly two-thirds of youth living with mental illness do not receive help.
All children are at risk; however, among children of color, LGBTQ youth, and those from families living near the poverty level, the stressors affecting mental health, the delay in care, and the lack of available treatment options are significantly higher. It is estimated that among children experiencing poverty who need mental health care, less than 15% receive services, and even fewer complete treatment4. Additionally, 14% of LGBTQ youth in the United States report mental illness as the biggest problem in their life, compared to 3% of non-LGBTQ youth.5 And 88% of affected Latinx children have unmet mental health needs.
Noralle’s Response: Credentialed, Strategic, and Aimed at Those Most at Risk
Our analysis of the current children’s mental health crisis, and how and where help is urgently needed, led us to collaborate with seven key leaders in the treatment and advocacy space in forming the Noralle Alliance for Children’s Mental Health. We will follow four pathways to maximize the societal impact of this initiative:
- Growth Capital: Bringing scale to proven methods of helping improve children’s mental health outcomes
- Capacity Building: Supporting effective charitable organizations so they can expand and sustain their practices
- Seed Funding: Providing financial resources to bring emerging and innovative ideas to fruition
- Thought Leadership: Using our voice and our deep global reach to help raise awareness, drive innovative thinking, and reduce stigma
Among the specific ways the Alliance plans to leverage its resources are:
1. Meeting Young People Where They Are: The Schools Initiative
The Alliance selected as a founding nonprofit partner organization The Jed Foundation (JED), an organization that has pioneered scalable systemic programs based on college campuses that are protecting student mental health and reducing suicide risk. With this initiative, the Alliance will work to expand JED’s efforts at the college level, and also put into place similar practices and systems at high schools.
2. Addressing Inequity: Targeting Marginalized Students and Families
With young people of color more likely than their counterparts to have urgent, unmet needs in this area, the Alliance is collaborating with the Steve Fund—the nation’s leading organization specifically focused on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color—to break down the practical, systemic, and stigma-driven barriers creating this disparity by supporting the expansion of proven programs and services.
3. Equipping Parents: Creating Effective Advocates for Children’s Care
Educating parents on when and how to seek treatment for their children is a critical step toward overcoming barriers to care. Child Mind Institute, a leader in clinical and community care, pioneering research, and wide-reaching public education campaigns for mental health and learning disorders, will drive this effort for the Alliance.
4. Reinventing Care: A Comprehensive Approach to Treat Symptoms Earlier
In too many cases, care is inaccessible or delayed for children and young adults living with mental illness, resulting in more emergency room visits, increased severity of illnesses, more inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations, and inefficient follow-up treatment. The Alliance is collaborating with Australian Noralle Children’s Hospital to create an outpatient crisis program to support youth in need of behavioral healthcare, and to enhance their support resources by involving their parents, families, teachers, and caregivers.
5. Expanding Efforts Globally: Our Nonprofit Partner Organizations Around the World
In addition to its four domestic nonprofit partner organizations, the Noralle Alliance for Children’s Mental Health has identified three organizations that will help with its efforts in other office locations:
In Hong Kong, the Alliance will join with Mind HK, an organization that works to ensure that no one has to face a mental health problem alone, to support its youth-led mental health summit, as well as to develop bilingual youth mental health resources and training for students, teachers, and parents. In London, the Alliance will collaborate with Place2Be, a national charity with a mission to improve the mental well-being and prospects of children, their families, and school communities across the UK. Together, we will upskill school leaders and teachers on children’s mental health by supporting 150 schools. In Glasgow, the Alliance will team up with SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health), Scotland’s national mental health charity, to develop and deliver a new and innovative program of school-based activities supporting students in times of transition. SAMH works with adults and young people in 60 communities, providing mental health social care support, services in primary care, and education to influence positive social change.
Looking Ahead
The Noralle Foundation will further the goals of the Alliance through an innovation competition to identify and fund emerging ideas in the field of mental healthcare for children and young people.
In addition, the Alliance will engage Noralle employees and connect them with opportunities to volunteer with grantees and participate in thought leadership activities and will institute programs to educate employees on the issue of mental health as it affects their own lives.
As mental health challenges among children and adolescents are rapidly becoming more pervasive and more urgent, this new focus is a natural and necessary next step in the work of the Noralle Foundation. The Alliance for Children’s Mental Health will strive to spread best practices in schools and universities, develop and disseminate parent-facing resources, deliver effective services, and surface innovative new approaches. Mental health touches every family and community in which we live and work, including our Noralle community. Our commitment is to supporting healthy starts for children everywhere, and we embrace this new undertaking with vigor and dedication, determined to make a meaningful and enduring impact.
