This May, for Mental Health Awareness Month, Our Children Oregon partnered with the Oregon School Based Health Alliance to ask high school students some questions about their experiences.
We wanted to know: What gets in the way? What would actually help? And, what do adults get wrong?
The answers were honest, specific, and very clear.
Oregon ranks 39th out of 51 states for youth mental health.
Nearly 1 in 5 Oregon 8th and 11th graders report unmet mental health needs.
Our youth have the highest rate of suicidal thoughts in the nation.
And, behind every data point is a young person in our state trying to be heard, and trying to advocate for their own health.
This is what they told us.
What would actually help?
We asked: If you could design one thing — a service, a space, a policy, a class — that would have helped you or your friends feel better supported over the past few years, what would it be and why?
Their answers:
“A wellness room or zen den — if people feel down or need somewhere to destress, they can go there to decompress with fidgets and other resources. It would be cool if it could be implemented in other schools as well.”
“More publicity of these (support) spaces is needed because a lot of people don’t know about it. Emphasize it’s for everyone. Some people think it’s just for those who need more help, but that’s not true.”
“You need a (hall) pass to access it, which is hard to get. It can be inconvenient to go there since you would miss class.”
Solutions we can work together to create:
- Schools need funding for dedicated, low-barrier wellness spaces
- These spaces must be normalized for all students, not just those in crisis
- Access can’t have barriers or penalties for missed class time
Students also asked for something broader:
“More publicity in general is needed around mental health. More lessons about different people’s stories, from race to neurodivergence.”
What these answers indicate:
Oregon’s health education standards should include a culturally responsive mental health curriculum that normalizes help-seeking across all communities.
What do adults get wrong?
We asked: What’s one thing adults in your life (parents, teachers, coaches) do or say that makes it harder for young people to talk about mental health? What do you wish they understood?
The answers:
“Most adults minimize youth’s struggles and say ‘you don’t know hardship yet.’ I wish they understood that hardship is still hardship even if it’s not seen as an adult thing.”
On dismissing mental health as an excuse:
“Adults act like mental health issues are somehow a crutch or an excuse.”
And, on cultural stigma, especially in immigrant families:
“For youth with immigrant parents, they struggle with talking about mental health because a lot of parents think it’s not real, that you shouldn’t talk about your emotions.”
And, finally:
“Kids often put a lot of pressure on themselves or have a lot of pressure put on them — school, sports, something else — and adults don’t fully realize when they’re minimizing that or adding to it.”
How can we ideate possible solutions and support?
- Adults need skills for how to listen without minimizing
- Mental health literacy must reach parents, not just students
- Culturally responsive resources are essential for immigrant families
- Adults need to recognize that pressure, even from good intentions, is still pressure
What stops young people from seeking help?
We asked: Can you identify a time you or a friend needed mental health support but didn’t seek it? What got in the way? What would have made it easier to reach out?
The students’ answers…
On finding providers:
“It was really hard to find people with openings for mental health services that were covered by insurance.”
On not knowing what exists:
“A barrier for some of my friends is awareness of services they can use. A lot of people think therapy is the only service, but there’s a lot of barriers with therapy — cost, time, accessibility. There’s services like Youthline, but they’re not long term.”
Regarding timing:
“It could be late at night and they need support in the moment, but adults and school counselors won’t be available until the next day. There’s nothing for them in the moment other than maybe their friends.”
What we can work toward:
- Insurance networks need to include enough mental health providers to actually meet demand
- Young people need to know about the full range of services, including warmlines, peer support, and school-based health centers
- Overnight and after-hours mental health support must exist for youth who need help when school is closed
We’re so grateful for these students’ insight and we notice what is missing from their answers.
They are not asking for a hotline poster on the wall or another assembly or distraction.
These students are asking for spaces that are actually accessible, available, and discoverable. They are seeking adults who actually listen to them and services that exist after 5pm, on weekends, and in the middle of the night.
Above all, they’re asking for the adults in their lives to stop telling them their pain is not real and instead helping them to gain real, meaningful support.
Oregon’s youth mental health crisis will not be solved by just one bill, one program, or one school counselor, but it can be solved by a web of upstream solutions: wellness rooms with real access, insurance networks that work, after-hours support, and adults who stop minimizing what children and youth are experiencing and going through.
Sources: Mental Health America 2025; Oregon Health Authority Student Health Survey 2022; Oregon Secretary of State Audit 2025; Interviews conducted in partnership with Oregon School Based Health Alliance
