By Best Starts for Kids
It doesn’t take an expert to realize that young people have a lot to cope with these days. But a group of public health and behavioral health experts at King County and Seattle Children’s realized that a better understanding of young people’s experiences with mental health and substance use would help agencies and institutions better respond to their needs. That’s why they shared data and developed a data brief to capture the story of young people in King County at different points in their journey.
To find out more about what the data tell us about young people in King County and what they need, we sat down with Sarah Wilhelm, who leads youth mental health policy and program work in Public Health Seattle & King County and Best Starts for Kids, and Sara Jaye Sanford, who crunches data on young people’s mental health in King County.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
What were some key takeaways about young people’s experiences that struck you?
Sarah: I started more closely paying attention to the data during the pandemic because there was a lot of community concern about our young people during that time. And sure enough, we did see an increase in rates of depression and anxiety and other more serious mental health challenges for young people.
When we started pulling together for this data brief, we were cautiously encouraged to see that we’re not seeing those big increases in rates of challenges that we saw in the earlier part of the pandemic. But we’re also not seeing the big improvements we would like to see. What also struck me is some of the disproportionate impacts hitting some subgroups of young people. Particularly LGBTQ+ youth, and BIPOC youth are really facing a lot of challenges right now.
It’s our responsibility to use the data to inform our programs and to look at how we can invest specifically in culturally relevant supports with special attention to those populations who are most in need.
We saw some encouraging data! Such as: 7 in 10 young people have a supportive adult in their life, which we know is a factor in long-term well-being. What else was encouraging to you?
Sarah: The number of young people who are not using substances. Eighty-six percent of teens in King County report not using alcohol, cannabis, or other drugs in the past month. That’s really encouraging because it suggests the work going into preventing the use of these substances and promoting healthy coping strategies is gaining traction.
We also heard from young people who were in a really difficult place with serious challenges related to crisis and recovery. They were able to access the treatment and services that they needed and have been able to recover and heal from those experiences. For example, one young adult who received treatment as a teen said, “While it took me a while to finally open up to treatment and the idea that I was worth fighting for, it is the reason I am here today!”
Sara Jaye: We see so much opportunity with promotion, which is all about increasing young people’s connections to community, family and peer support; and building on their strengths. It’s what young people want: Young people are, frankly, doing a lot of promotion themselves, both through programs like the Youth Healing Project, which provides mini grants to young people to create mental health supports for their peers, and less formally as well. I hope readers come away as I did: with a sense of hope inspired by young people’s words.
Talk about why King County approaches mental health care and substance use treatment in terms of a continuum?
Sarah: I think the continuum is really a nice articulation of the broad range of needs and supports and services young people have across their development. So rather than just look at rates of depression or suicide, we look at the full range of mental health experiences, including promotion and prevention. Because the whole picture of well-being is complex and changes over time.
We have really urgent needs in treatment, crisis, and recovery services. It’s critical we invest in those services. We also know that if we don’t invest upstream in the promotion and prevention, we’re never going to get ahead of that curve.
What is the benefit of gathering data like this?
Sarah: We hope it will be used broadly by a range of folks within King County to inform our work around youth behavioral health. It’s really a value that we have to use data to inform the kinds of programs and investments we’re making.
And we know how important concrete data and information is for our policymakers as they’re making decisions, whether that be at the local level or the state level. So, we really hope that this can be a resource and tool for policymakers as well.
Sara Jaye: This brief is really unique in that it brings together so many different perspectives. It shows data captured by folks like me who are looking at population health overall of young people in King County. It shows data from the perspectives of people who are working with young people. And perhaps most importantly, the brief features the perspectives of young people themselves who have witnessed, who have experienced, and who have overcome the kinds of challenges we talk about in the brief.
Read the full brief in English or Spanish!
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal ideation you can call Crisis Connections or one of these lines for support:
- Children’s Crisis Outreach Services (CCORS), 206-461-3222
- Call a crisis line such as King County’s Crisis Line 206-461-3222 or visit www.CrisisConnections.org, available 24/7, 365, to help link you to available and appropriate local resources; the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 988 or 800-273-8255; Trevor Project for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386; or text “HOME” to 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line.
Originally published on April 29, 2025.