The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that one in five adults in the United States experiences mental illness every year. The term “mental illness” includes any disorder that affects one's mood, thinking, or behavior. When it has a negative effect on work, education, relationships, and other aspects of daily life, the condition is known as a psychiatric disability.

Psychiatric disabilities are persistent conditions that may have a significant, lifelong impact. People with psychiatric disabilities may reduce or manage the effects with medication and/or psychotherapy, but even with treatment, the effects of many psychiatric disabilities may persist in some form.

Mental health conditions are common among teens and young adults. Half of all lifetime mental illnesses develop by age 14; 75 percent of lifetime mental illnesses develop by age 24. And it can start very early in life: one in six children ages 2–8 has a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder.

This month, as we collectively mark the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, we focus RAISE on mental health conditions and resources for youth in transition from school to adult life.

These comments could come from any teen or adult talking about stress, anxiety, or depression. But in this video, produced by Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Oregon Health and Science University, it is six young children who share their perspectives.

For students with mental health issues and psychiatric disabilities, making sure they have the resources they need to maintain their treatment plans when transitioning from home to college life is a major challenge. It involves working with their high school counselor and/or therapist to ensure that they have access to social and clinical supports and, if appropriate, to medication.

Some students develop mental health issues while attending college. Students from low-income and underserved communities are particularly vulnerable. Colleges must be proactive in supporting student well-being, and work to reduce unnecessary stress, substance abuse, and suicide.

Most colleges provide some form of community support and counseling, but all are required to provide necessary accommodations to eligible students with mental health needs.

Accommodations might include:

NAMI’s guide, Managing a Mental Health Condition in College:

Best Colleges’ College Guide for Students with Psychiatric Disabilities:

Mental health apps are everywhere these days. These e-tools can be accessed via smartphone or mobile device and offer tools for self-regulation as well as activities intended to improve mood and build skills. Research also suggests that mental health apps have potential as both treatment tools and supplements to traditional therapy.

Mental health apps offer several beneficial features.

MoodMission was developed by mental health professionals to help people with stress, anxiety, or depression. Rooted in evidence-based CBT activities, the app recommends “missions” based on how the user is feeling.

RecoveryRecord helps people with eating disorders by allowing them to create healthy meal plans, monitor their urges to binge, and create long-term management systems.

Panic Relief features animated displays to discuss proper responses and procedures for panic attacks and other sudden bouts of anxiety.

Rescue Time provides tools that can help students learn to become more focused, productive, and motivated, and learn to avoid distraction.

Mood-Panda tracks daily emotions using graphs, calendars, and other interactive displays to help students prone to depression, anxiety, and other mood-related disorders.

Shine was named best of 2020 by Apple. A female-focused self-care app that addresses self-improvement, it delivers motivational messages through text and audio.

Self Help for Anxiety Management (SAM) is a highly-rated app that monitors anxious thoughts and behaviors in order to create sustainable long-term management plans. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/self-help-for-anxiety-management/id666767947

NOTE: Mental illness can be a life-threatening condition. Anyone experiencing symptoms of mental illness should seek professional advice for diagnosis and treatment. Apps are NOT a substitute for evidence-based treatment, but can be used in conjunction with a comprehensive care plan under the supervision of a mental health professional.

For the Latinx/Hispanic community, mental health and mental illness are often stigmatized, resulting in prolonged silent suffering. This silence compounds the range of experiences that may have contributed to the original mental health condition, including immigration, acculturation, trauma, and generational conflicts. Further, the Latinx/Hispanic community faces unique institutional and systemic barriers that may impede access to mental health services.

Mental Health America offers resources and tools in Spanish that can help.

For the immigrant community, access to care can be complicated by language, culture, insurance access (resources), and citizenship status. Immigrants are more likely to have experienced trauma or witnessed violence, may lack social supports, which leads to substance abuse or domestic violence, and may live in a state of “hiding.”

Mental Health America provides a PowerPoint that details some of the challenges and some of the solutions to supporting this community.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not have an exhaustive list of medical conditions that constitute disabilities. Instead, the landmark civil rights legislation has a general definition of disability: a physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits" one or more major life activity, or a record of such an impairment or that the individual is regarded as having an impairment. While the regulations do list certain medical conditions – including mental and psychological disorders and mental illness – that would easily be considered a "disability" under the law, it is more important to look at HOW the condition affects the individual. In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) advises employers NOT to focus on the lists or definitions, but rather, to look at the accommodation and whether it is reasonable and could be provided without undue hardship.

JAN, the Job Accommodation Network, has a simple set of questions to help answer that question:

Keep in mind: If an impairment is on the EEOC's list of conditions that are virtually always disabilities, get the diagnosis and move on to making the accommodation. If it is not on the list...

Want more? JAN has information about accommodations for mental health conditions.

EARN’s award-winning Mental Health Toolkit was created to foster a mentally healthy workplace.

The Youth Mental Health Project educates, empowers, and supports families and communities to better understand and care for the mental health of our youth. They have a bank of free archived webinars on topics in youth mental health.

This month, we are proud to present two bloggers whose work centers on positive thinking as a strategy to shape the future.

Jessica invites readers to find joy and happiness in her blog post Finding My Heartsong.

- Aaron Fajerksi

RAISE Blogger Aaron Fajerkis describes his journey from dependence and over-reliance on others, to self-advocacy and self-determination.

April 19, 2021 Webinar

This webinar will take a look at frameworks for individual youth empowerment and discuss strategies for utilizing them as you develop programming at your own agencies and organizations.

May 17, 2021 Webinar

This webinar will take a look at combining previous frameworks and discussing how to support collective youth empowerment as well as strategies for utilizing them as you develop programming at your own agencies and organizations.

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the availability of $25 million to fund grants to approximately six organizations to provide education and employment training to young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who left high school before graduation, or are currently or have been involved previously with the juvenile or adult criminal justice system.

Authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the awards will provide up to $4,500,000 each to eligible intermediary organizations (defined as organizations that have sub-grantees, affiliates, or local offices that serve at least three communities across at least two states) to serve young adults. Award recipients must partner actively with community colleges to deliver education and training opportunities and create pathways that lead to better economic outcomes for justice-involved young adults.

RAISE The Standard enewsletter identifies and shares resources that the Rehabilitation Services Administration Parent Training and Information Centers (RSA-PTI) can use and share with families.