The mental health of U.S. youth had been deteriorating in years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the crisis was exacerbated by the pandemic, according to a 2021 CDC report. According to the report, 29% of high school students experienced a decline in their mental health in the 30 days before the survey was conducted. More than one in five (22%) students had seriously considered attempting suicide. Founded in partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation, Pinterest, 11 state governors, the U.S. Surgeon General, and organizations including the National Council on Mental Services and AmeriCorps, the new initiative aims to help young people facing mental health challenges. and they want to address the gap. Ability to access resources for care.
The program, called Youth Mental Health Corps, launched this month and will place hundreds of trained peer mental health workers (ages 18 to 24) directly into schools and community organizations to tackle two sides of the equation simultaneously. In other words, we hope to provide young people with the following: It provides training and concrete experience for young people interested in mental health care, while also contributing to mental health care.
The program, funded by both the Schultz Family Foundation and Pinterest, provides free training and certification to service members. This is an unusual move for Pinterest among social media platforms, many of which research has shown actively contribute to negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety and depression among young people.
Chief Legal and Business Officer Wanji Wolcott said in a statement to Teen Vogue: “According to research from the University of California, Berkeley, just 10 minutes of inspiring content on Pinterest each day can help Gen Z college students reduce negative situations such as burnout and stress.” Such. We take this responsibility seriously and continue to invest heavily in ways we can support young people's mental health. Walcott said the partnership with the Youth Mental Health Corps is an example of Pinterest's commitment to the well-being of its users.
Nellie Grosso, a student and mental health worker, has been providing care to fellow students for the past two years through Colorado Youth for a Change, a Youth Mental Health Corps grantee. Ta. Grosso says his own work as a peer mentor is based on his experience as a first-generation Latino immigrant to the United States. “We have an opportunity to share the magnitude of strength and success that comes from our first-generation community, because the stress we live with impacts our mental health, causing anxiety and depression. We all have traumas like having undocumented parents, having to do things on your own, and the stress of having to act as an interpreter at a young age. ,” Grosso told Teen Vogue.
Most of the students Grosso mentors are immigrants from various countries in Latin America, and she says the biggest factors impacting their mental health are systemic and structural. “The biggest barrier they have right now is trying to understand the whole country, the education system, the culture, the whole way of thinking while learning English. And a lot of my students feel the pressure to succeed. They feel that way, and that's having a big impact on their mental health. It makes sense because they come from very tough backgrounds, after all,” Grosso said. .
