By Masha Mesyef

Posted in: Hot Topics

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Today is World Mental Health Day, and this year’s theme is “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.”

As adults, we often talk about young people’s mental health. This year, we’re stepping back to let young people speak for themselves. The voices below come from our Real Lives, Real Stories series: college students learning to open up, a young woman who grew up homeless, children who have lived in shelters, and families built through adoption.

They remind us that the people who know the most about a young person’s life are often young people themselves. Real change starts when we listen.

“Is there a way that you could just listen to me?”

In College Students Talk About Stress, students describe juggling classes, jobs, family and friendships, and how hard it can be to say they’re struggling. One student said: “It’s hard for me to really express myself, to say, ‘Hey, this is what I’ve been through. This is what I’m going through. And is there a way that you could just listen to me?'”

Another described what it means when friends answer that call: “Those simple words of just telling someone that they’re not alone can be so powerful.”

Jade’s journey

Jade Gardner, a Lesley University student, joined our Shrinking It Down podcast to talk about growing up homeless, watching her younger sister move through foster care, and the fear that kept her from asking for help as a child. Her hope is that no child has to feel this way: “There should not be that stigma of, ‘I’m afraid to talk to my teacher, I’m afraid to talk to a social worker, I’m afraid because something bad will happen.'”

Listen to the episode and read Jade’s story

HOME

In our short film HOME: Bringing Voice to Youth Who Have Experienced Homelessness, children describe what home means to them, what life in a shelter was like, and what they want to be when they grow up. One child had a message for other kids without a home: “Don’t let nobody crush your dreams… you are a good kid.”

 

HOME: Bringing Voice to Youth Who Have Experienced Homelessness

Family: Stories of Adoption

In Family: Stories of Adoption, parents and adopted children share how their families came together, the hard questions along the way, and what family means to them. One young adult put it this way: “Family is something you create. It’s forever. It’s the group of people that you call home.”

Family: Stories of Adoption

Keep the conversation going

Listening doesn’t require the perfect words. Ask how they’re doing, give them room to answer, and take their experience seriously, in their own words. If you’re worried, reach out to your child’s pediatrician, family physician or a mental health clinician.

For more guidance, explore our free When to Worry, What to Do handouts and the rest of our Real Lives, Real Stories series.

If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. More resources are on our Where to Turn page.

The MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds is led by Gene Beresin, MD, MA, and Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH, clinicians at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.