A local initiative is seeking statewide impact. Last month, Jewish Healthcare Foundation welcomed more than 50 community-based organizations for a conversation concerning teen mental health. The Feb. 18 meeting marked the start of the PA Teen Mental Health Initiative and continuation of a yearslong commitment to combating what healthcare professionals say is a “crisis” facing today’s youth.
Since 2017, JHF has addressed increased rates of sadness, depression and anxiety among young adults. Last month’s meeting united organizations serving 61 counties across Pennsylvania and delivered tools to promote increased funding related to mental health prevention and early intervention services.
Bringing 50 organizations together, who collectively cover almost the entire commonwealth, reflects the “enthusiasm that the folks who work in this space have for their work and how great the need is for Pennsylvania,” Carolyn Byrnes, policy director at JHF, said.
The numbers
Data regarding adolescent mental health is “overwhelming,” according to Danny Rosen, a senior consultant at JHF and professor of social work at the University of Pittsburgh.
A recent statewide report assessing children in grades six through 12 found that 36% said “at times I think I am no good at all”; 37% of students maintained they “felt sad or depressed most days in the past 12 months”; and 16% of students “seriously considered attempting suicide.”
Students’ responses to the 2023 Pennsylvania Youth Survey are staggering, yet so are statements from the report’s compilers, which include the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
Among adolescents requiring mental health services, fewer than half receive them. Authors of the report note the reasons why Pennsylvania’s young aren’t obtaining those services include embarrassment, limited mental health knowledge and perceived social stigma.
“I can’t imagine being a teenager and feeling like there’s no one to talk to,” Byrnes said. “Just being a teenager now is different even from what it was 10 years ago.”
The mental health of young people has been “declining over the past two decades,” according to the Lancet Psychiatry Commission, a group organized by the peer-reviewed medical journal of the same name. Moving forward, “mental ill health represents the principal threat to the health, wellbeing and productivity of young people who are in transition from childhood to mature adulthood.”
Going to the source
Grouping community-based organizations, and offering adults a space to learn and strategize, is one tactic. Empowering teens is another.
For the past five years, JHF has administered the PA Youth Advocacy Series. The eight-week project enables young leaders to develop public speaking skills, learn about the legislative process and effectuate meaningful change.
Scotland Huber, chief communications officer at JHF, called the series an important means of uplifting young stakeholders, but said there’s an added bonus for JHF: The Foundation is able to hear “directly from teens that have an interest, or history or passion for mental health.”
Learning from teenagers and discovering the impacts made by community-based organizations has “made a real difference.”
There’s a popular phrase — “Nothing about us without us” — that drives the advocacy series, Byrnes said. “We don’t want to do anything about teens without teens. That’s how important their voice is.”
Within Pittsburgh, local organizations have taken note. Months ago, The Beacon, a teen wellness center run by The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh, welcomed Lt. Gov. Austin Davis for a day of touring and conversations with young adults. Davis, who oversees the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, told the Chronicle the visit was impactful and called the space a “model of what we should be doing in communities all over the commonwealth.”
Nearly a year earlier, Friendship Circle invited parents and community members to hear from adolescents who described the challenges of being young.
“A lot of adults don’t realize how prevalent mental health struggles really are,” a participating teen told listeners. “I know a lot of my friends’ parents don’t really accept that their child could be going through something like this.”
Voices for votes
Along with coalescing community-based organizations through the Teen Mental Health Initiative and galvanizing adolescents through the Youth Advocacy Series, JHF is preparing stakeholders for a meaningful trip to Harrisburg. On March 24, advocates will visit legislators and policy experts during Teen Mental Health Advocacy Day at the State Capital.
In preparation of the excursion, University of Pittsburgh graduate student Ayala Rosenthal authored a 31-page Teen Mental Health Advocacy Toolkit. Published by JHF, the document provides specific instructions.
Regardless of a legislator’s interest in the issue, options exist. If the legislator is supportive, “Ask them to do something,” Rosenthal said. If they’re not supportive, ask them about their “solution.”
Months after the March visit, legislators will face a critical decision: Around July 1, elected officials will vote on the 2025-2026 budget. Of note to teens and those concerned with youth mental health is a proposal by Gov. Josh Shapiro and Lt. Gov. Davis to increase funding for BOOST (Building Opportunity through Out-of-School). The program, which was funded in the 2024-2025 budget and administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, delivered nearly $11 million in grants to 46 after-school programs.
“This year, we’re doubling down, proposing an additional $10 million investment in BOOST, along with a $10 million increase in Violence Intervention and Prevention funding,” Davis said in a prepared statement. “These investments are not just about doing what’s right — they’re about making smart, data-driven decisions to build stronger, safer communities.”
Several community-based organizations, including Allegheny Family Network and Big Brothers and Sisters of South-Central PA, described the effects of receiving BOOST funds during the Feb. 18 meeting with JHF.
Next month’s meeting of the Teen Mental Health Initiative will reiterate ongoing needs, Byrnes said.
That conversation, which brings together constituents from across Pennsylvania, makes clear that “this is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is not an urban or rural or suburban issue,” Rosen said. “This cuts across all those lines.”
“Most people don’t really need the data to know it’s a hard time to be a teenager — that teens are really struggling,” he added.
Because it matters
JHF is committed to addressing the “teen mental health crisis, and that’s not to say there’s something wrong with our teenagers,” Huber said. Multiple elements are contributing to the realities adolescents face “and it’s not the responsibility of teens to fix all the systemic issues we have built for them.”
The fact that teens, community-based organizations and foundations from across Pennsylvania are all working on addressing these issues should signal to legislators and policy makers that “funding for prevention and early intervention services is so important,” Byrnes said.
Despite 50% of all lifetime mental illnesses beginning by age 14, the average delay between system onset and treatment is 11 years, National Alliance on Mental Illness reported.
Early intervention is not only “highly accessible and acceptable to young people,” according to BMJ Mental Health, a peer-reviewed medical journal. Early intervention results in outcomes that are “positive and cost-effective.”
There’s a “huge downstream impact,” Huber said. “That’s why we’ve focused on that.”
By making a difference in “communities across the state,” Byrnes said, “the hope is to help teens everywhere.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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