Redwood City School District mental health counseling program: Year 1 implementation study. Research brief.
The incidence of mental health challenges among youth, already of national concern in recent years, has increased at an accelerated rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General, an action reserved for “significant public health challenges that need the nation’s immediate awareness and action.”
Data show mental health challenges impact youth across all demographics, yet they also highlight that there are some whose vulnerability, due to a number of social, economic, and environmental factors, may be disproportionately elevated, such as those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) and/or Black, Indigenous, or persons of color
(BIPOC). How systems respond to the mental health challenges of youth, including those most vulnerable, will have lasting impacts on communities.