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According to CDC data released this year, nearly 3 in 5 (57%) U.S. teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021—DOUBLE that of boys, representing a nearly 60% increase and the highest level reported over the past decade. While all teens reported increasing mental health challenges, experiences of violence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, girls fared worse than boys across nearly all measures.
NAMI Southeast Wisconsin’s Ending the Silence (ETS) program is a national, evidence-based outreach and education initiative offered at no cost to Waukesha County schools. Trained young adult presenters with lived experience share their personal stories of recovery as well as provide a safe space to discuss mental health conditions. Students receive accurate medical information on mental health conditions, learn de-stigmatizing language, and receive crisis resources in order to help themselves or a friend/loved one. Through ETS, students and teachers are empowered to normalize conversations around mental health conditions. Ending the silence, and the stigma, around mental illness is key to seeking treatment/support, which, in turn, leads to better outcomes.
While there is no singular solution to the youth mental health crisis in America, education is a powerful tool in helping youth understand that mental health conditions are real, common, and treatable, and that people experiencing mental health challenges deserve support, compassion, and care. For more than 40 years, NAMI Southeast Wisconsin (the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness) has worked to support individuals, families, and communities experiencing mental health conditions, and provide hope through education and outreach at no cost.
To learn more about NAMi Southeat Wisconisn, visit: www.namiwisconsin.org.
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