It was great to be part of the Improving Young People's Mental Health: Policy, Prevention and Early Intervention Conference. My presentation focused on a topic I'm passionate about: Why substance use, neurodiversity and harm reduction must be part of the conversation when we're talking about improving young people's mental health. When we discuss improving young people's mental health, we often focus on prevention, resilience, early intervention and access to services. All of these are essential. However, we can still struggle to recognise what young people are actually doing when they are struggling. Young people rarely present saying, "I need mental health support." Instead, they present with behaviours. They disengage from education, withdraw from family and friends, self-harm or increasingly self-medicate through substances. The young person using cannabis daily or experimenting with ketamine is often trying to solve a problem, not create one. Substance use rarely exists in isolation. Behind it we often see anxiety, trauma, family conflict, low self-esteem and increasingly, neurodiversity. Substance use is a symptom, not the root cause. What begins as relief can become an additional problem. The cannabis that eases anxiety today may worsen motivation tomorrow. The ketamine that provides escape may impact education, relationships and wellbeing. Young people are not choosing harm. More often, they are choosing relief. If we fail to understand the need beneath the behaviour, we risk responding with judgement instead of support. We know that neurodiverse young people experience higher levels of anxiety, educational challenges, social exclusion and vulnerability. For some, substance use becomes an attempt to manage overwhelm, regulate emotions or feel more comfortable in social situations. This does not make substance use the answer, but it helps us understand the need being met. As professionals, we may not agree with the solution a young person has found. But if we do not understand the need they are trying to meet, our interventions are unlikely to succeed. This is where harm reduction matters. Harm reduction is often misunderstood as accepting substance use. It isn't. Harm reduction means engaging with reality and building trust. It starts with: "Tell me what's happening." "Help me understand." "Let's reduce the risk together." When young people feel understood rather than judged, they are more likely to stay engaged, seek help earlier and consider change. Harm reduction is not the opposite of prevention. It is prevention. Our role is not simply to remove the substance. Our role is to understand the need. Because when young people feel understood, they engage. When they engage, change becomes possible. And when we combine mental health support, understanding of neurodiversity and harm reduction, we create something incredibly powerful: Not just better services, but better futures for young people.
Mental Health and Substance Use in Young People: A Harm Reduction Approach
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Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions globally, affecting individuals across all age groups and backgrounds. With rising awareness of emotional well-being and psychological care, there is an increasing demand for mental health education that is accessible, practical, and evidence-informed. The OSHAA 30-Hours Diploma in Depression has been designed to provide participants with essential knowledge and understanding of depression, its causes, symptoms, treatment strategies, and the impact it has on individuals, families, and communities. This diploma offers a professionally structured overview of depression, blending psychological theory with practical insight to help participants recognise, understand, and respond to depressive symptoms in a compassionate and informed manner. It covers a wide range of topics from biological and psychological causes of depression to therapeutic approaches, lifestyle factors, and support systems. Spanning 30 hours of guided study, the course is built around contemporary psychological knowledge and best practices in mental health support. Participants will explore how depression presents across different age groups, identify risk factors and comorbidities, and evaluate various intervention strategies, including both medical and therapeutic options. The OSHAA 30-Hours Diploma in Depression provides a practical and accessible pathway into mental health education. Developed by experienced professionals, the course content reflects current research and industry expectations. Participants benefit from a clear, structured learning journey that is grounded in compassion, professionalism, and a deep respect for those affected by mental illness. The OSHAA 30-Hours Diploma in Depression is an essential step for participants seeking to build practical understanding, reduce stigma, and contribute meaningfully to the mental health and well-being of others. https://lnkd.in/e8YAtg6q Occupational Safety and Health American Academy (OSHAA) #osha #oshaa #americanacademy #oshaaatp #becomeatp #award #certificate #diploma #training #education #Depression #DepressionAwareness #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #MentalHealthEducation #MentalHealthTraining #MentalHealthSupport #MentalHealthCare #Psychology #PsychologicalHealth #IntroductionToDepressionAndMentalHealthAwareness #BiologicalAndPsychologicalCausesOfDepression #RecognisingSignsAndSymptomsAcrossTheLifespan #TypesOfDepressionClinicalPostnatalSeasonalAndAtypical #AssessmentToolsAndDiagnosticCriteria #EvidenceBasedTherapeuticInterventions #PharmacologicalTreatmentsAndMedicationManagement #LifestyleFactorsDietExerciseAndSleepInMentalHealth
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The sad truth is that most social safety nets are mere smoke and mirrors. In Canada, there is a quiet acceptance of infantalization due to need; be it social housing, medical care, homecare or mental health care. Those "dispensing" help are mostly constrained by a lack of funding and political will. Overall, society prefers to warehouse those considered a financial burden on "the system". They are not valued because they are not producing value. Therefore, there are systems in place to manage their lives by providing less than necessary for survival let alone for a modicum of dignified existence.
Trauma educator Mental health trainer energy therapist clinical supervisor Founder Routed in recovery Truth & Purpose Author Unlayering the hidden roots of Trauma MBACP Accredited Registered member & psychology Today
Across much of the world, mental health care is structured around reactive thresholding rather than proactive intervention. People are routinely told they are "not ill enough" for specialist care-only to be told later, when they reach a breaking point, that they are "too complex" or "in too much of a crisis" for standard community services. We have built a society that demands a spectacle of suffering before it grants permission to heal. We tell people to speak up, to ask for help, to reach out before it’s too late. But when they do—quietly, calmly, bravely—the system points to a waitlist and whispers, “Not yet.” It forces human distress to qualify for care. It asks you to prove you are broken enough, desperate enough, close enough to the edge to earn a seat in the room. It treats the warning light as an inconvenience. I supported so many young people unable to express how they feel, overwhelmed with anxiety or numbed to the point words can’t be voiced. I’ve guided them to write down how they feel so they can hand the letter to the G.P upon their visit. So many just given prescriptions, being told their depressed often without a deeper conversation taking place. Underfunded systems are forced to prioritize immediate life-or-death situations. As a result, standard care becomes accessible only after a person presents a danger to themselves or others. Waiting months or years for basic therapy turns manageable conditions, like moderate depression or anxiety, into severe, entrenched trauma and chronic illness. What about those who simply cannot afford therapy. When care is gated behind a threshold of severity, it creates a perverse incentive structure. People quickly learn that minor symptoms, quiet struggles, or early warning signs are dismissed. To receive resources, validation, or professional help, individuals are forced to deteriorate until their pain becomes loud enough, visible enough, or dangerous enough to register on the institution's radar. This transforms the healing process into a marathon of endurance, where people at times have to escalate their own distress... just to prove they are sick enough to deserve relief, when they are in desperate places already. Every time an individual asks for help early and is told they don't meet the threshold, the message they internalize is that their pain does not matter until it threatens their survival or the safety of others. By the time the safety net finally catches them, the intervention required is infinitely more complex, costly, and painful than the support they needed months prior. That is why it is so important for all of us to stay truly present, to look past the polite smiles and the quiet endurance of the people we love. When institutions demand a crisis before they will care, it falls to us to be the safety net that catches each other early, proving with our attention that no one has to break just to be heard. Heline Freea #mentalhealthcrises #depression #suicide
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Across much of the world, mental health care is structured around reactive thresholding rather than proactive intervention. People are routinely told they are "not ill enough" for specialist care-only to be told later, when they reach a breaking point, that they are "too complex" or "in too much of a crisis" for standard community services. We have built a society that demands a spectacle of suffering before it grants permission to heal. We tell people to speak up, to ask for help, to reach out before it’s too late. But when they do—quietly, calmly, bravely—the system points to a waitlist and whispers, “Not yet.” It forces human distress to qualify for care. It asks you to prove you are broken enough, desperate enough, close enough to the edge to earn a seat in the room. It treats the warning light as an inconvenience. I supported so many young people unable to express how they feel, overwhelmed with anxiety or numbed to the point words can’t be voiced. I’ve guided them to write down how they feel so they can hand the letter to the G.P upon their visit. So many just given prescriptions, being told their depressed often without a deeper conversation taking place. Underfunded systems are forced to prioritize immediate life-or-death situations. As a result, standard care becomes accessible only after a person presents a danger to themselves or others. Waiting months or years for basic therapy turns manageable conditions, like moderate depression or anxiety, into severe, entrenched trauma and chronic illness. What about those who simply cannot afford therapy. When care is gated behind a threshold of severity, it creates a perverse incentive structure. People quickly learn that minor symptoms, quiet struggles, or early warning signs are dismissed. To receive resources, validation, or professional help, individuals are forced to deteriorate until their pain becomes loud enough, visible enough, or dangerous enough to register on the institution's radar. This transforms the healing process into a marathon of endurance, where people at times have to escalate their own distress... just to prove they are sick enough to deserve relief, when they are in desperate places already. Every time an individual asks for help early and is told they don't meet the threshold, the message they internalize is that their pain does not matter until it threatens their survival or the safety of others. By the time the safety net finally catches them, the intervention required is infinitely more complex, costly, and painful than the support they needed months prior. That is why it is so important for all of us to stay truly present, to look past the polite smiles and the quiet endurance of the people we love. When institutions demand a crisis before they will care, it falls to us to be the safety net that catches each other early, proving with our attention that no one has to break just to be heard. Heline Freea #mentalhealthcrises #depression #suicide
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Nobody plans to lose control. It happens one "just this once" at a time, until the "once" quietly becomes the default. By the time most families notice, they're not looking at a habit anymore. They're looking at a coping mechanism that's outgrown its usefulness and its user. Here's what most people misunderstand about addiction. It's rarely about the substance or behavior itself. It's about what that substance or behavior is managing. Alcohol that started as social lubrication becomes the only way to switch off a racing mind A habit that began as stress relief becomes the default response to any discomfort at all What looks like "no self-control" is often an overworked nervous system reaching for the fastest available relief The psychology behind it. Addiction develops through the brain's reward circuitry specifically, the dopamine pathway that reinforces behaviors linked to relief or pleasure. Each use temporarily quiets distress, which trains the brain to seek that same relief again, faster and with less resistance each time. This is why willpower alone so rarely works. You're not fighting a lack of discipline you're fighting a neurologically reinforced survival loop that took months or years to build, and won't unbuild in a single decision. This also explains why shame-based approaches ("just stop") consistently fail. Shame increases the very distress the addiction was originally managing — which drives the behavior deeper, not away. What actually creates change: Identifying the underlying need the behavior was meeting — stress relief, numbing, connection, escape Building alternative coping mechanisms before removing the old one, not after Family involvement, since addiction rarely affects one person in isolation it reshapes trust, communication, and roles across the whole household Relapse understood as data, not failure recovery is rarely linear, and treating a setback as the end of progress often causes people to disengage entirely A reframe for families watching someone struggle: The question isn't "why can't they just stop?" It's "what is this behavior doing for them that nothing else currently does?" That question opens a door. Judgment closes it. Recovery isn't a single decision. It's a rebuilt relationship with distress itself — supported, structured, and paced by people trained to guide it safely. 📍 Breakthrough Counselling Centre Ruiru View Building, 1st Floor, Office FF5, Off Mathigu Road (Near Equity Afya Medical Centre, Right Opposite Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Ruiru Branch) 🌐 https://lnkd.in/deEmU-zW ✨ In-Person & Virtual Sessions Available #MentalHealthKenya #Ruiru #AddictionRecovery #MentalHealthMatters
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HEALTH O’CLOCK WITH ARAOLUWA Let’s Start the Conversation: How Can We Support Someone Going Through a Difficult Time? Last week, we talked about why mental health is health and why we need to make conversations about it more normal. This week, let’s take the conversation a step further: What can we actually do when someone around us is going through a difficult time? Sometimes, we notice that a friend, colleague, classmate, family member or someone we care about isn't quite themselves. They may seem withdrawn, overwhelmed, unusually quiet or simply not okay. We may not always know what to say. And that's okay. Supporting someone doesn't mean having all the answers. Sometimes, it starts with simply being present and willing to listen. Here are a few ways we can support someone: * Check in genuinely. Don't just ask, “How are you?” and move on. Give them room to share if they want to. * Listen without judgement. Avoid immediately dismissing their feelings, blaming them or telling them to “just be strong.” Sometimes, people need to feel heard before they can think about what comes next. * Take changes seriously. If someone’s wellbeing or behaviour seems noticeably different, don't automatically assume they're simply being difficult or seeking attention. A gentle check-in can open an important conversation. * Encourage appropriate support. You don't have to become someone's therapist. Encourage them to speak with a trusted person, counsellor, social worker, doctor or other qualified mental health professional when appropriate. WHO also recommends encouraging people who are struggling to connect with health professionals and other trusted sources of support. * Help create a culture where asking for help is okay. Stigma can make people afraid to speak. Changing the narrative means replacing judgement and silence with compassion, understanding and support. This is central to WHO's 2026 World Suicide Prevention Day campaign. Sometimes, support can sound simple: “I've noticed you haven't seemed like yourself lately. How are you really doing?” “I'm here to listen.” “You don't have to go through this alone.” We may not be able to solve another person's problems for them. But we can choose to listen, care, take them seriously and help them connect with appropriate support. That is part of changing the narrative. Because mental health conversations shouldn't only happen when there's a crisis. Let's make compassion, connection and asking for help part of our everyday culture. Your Health O’Clock takeaway: You don't need to have all the answers to be supportive. Sometimes, starting the conversation is the first step. Real talk. Simple tips. Better health. #HealthOClockWithAraOluwa #MentalHealthIsHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #WorldSuicidePreventionDay #StartTheConversation #PublicHealth #HealthEducation #MentalWellbeing #EndTheStigma #HealthPromotion
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Break Stigma One reflection keeps coming back to me in my clinical work with young people, particularly young people from Asian background. By the time some young people first enter the therapy room, they have already been struggling for a very long time. Some tell me that they had asked their parents for psychological help months—or even years—earlier. But the first response was sometimes: “Are you crazy? Why would you need a therapist?” “What will other people think if they know you are seeing a mental health professional?” “You’re just overthinking.” “You’re being lazy.” “You’re trying to avoid school and responsibility.” So they keep going. They keep attending school while struggling internally. They try to manage the anxiety, low mood, emotional dysregulation, loneliness, or overwhelming pressure themselves. Until eventually, they can’t. They stop getting out of bed. They stop going to school. Sleep becomes severely disrupted. Eating becomes difficult. Communication with family begins to break down. Only then does everyone realise: This young person really needs help. But often, the young person already knew that. They knew something was wrong when they first said, “I think I need to talk to someone.” Mental health stigma does not always look like openly rejecting mental illness. Sometimes it sounds like: “Don’t think too much.” “Just be stronger.” “You have such a good life. What could you possibly be depressed about?” Or: “What will other people think?” These responses may come from worry, misunderstanding, cultural beliefs, or a parent's genuine hope that the problem will simply pass. But the impact can still be significant: help-seeking is delayed, distress remains hidden, and a young person may learn that their internal experience should not be spoken about. For parents, perhaps we do not need to immediately understand everything our child is experiencing. But when a young person says, “I think I need help,” either by verval expression or by non-verbal presentation, we can start by taking that signal seriously. Sometimes the first therapeutic intervention is not therapy itself. It is having someone respond: “I may not fully understand what you are going through yet, but I’m listening. Let’s find out what support you need.” I’m curious about others’ experiences: What do you think would help families and communities have a different conversation about young people’s mental health?
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Mental health is not just about feeling happy—and it is not simply the absence of mental illness. In 2026, leading health authorities continue to describe mental health as a broader state of well-being that affects how people cope with stress, work and learn, maintain relationships, and participate in daily life. WHO also emphasizes that mental health exists on a continuum and can be shaped by individual, family, community, and wider structural factors. That changes how we should think about mental well-being. A person can experience stress, grief, worry, or loneliness without automatically having a mental disorder. At the same time, persistent or severe symptoms that interfere with everyday functioning deserve attention and may require professional support. NIMH recommends seeking professional help for severe or distressing symptoms that persist for two weeks or more, while emphasizing that people do not need to wait when symptoms are severe or there is an immediate safety concern. The U.S. picture also deserves context. The CDC's 2026 Mental Health Data Channel reports that 29% of U.S. high school students said their mental health was not good most of the time or always, 19% of U.S. adults had ever been told by a health professional that they had a depression disorder, and 82% of U.S. adults reported receiving the social and emotional support they needed. These figures come from different measures and data years, so they should not be treated as one single measure of U.S. mental health. So what actually shapes mental well-being? It can involve much more than sleep, exercise, or diet: • Physical and biological health • Stress and major life changes • Relationships and social connection • Work, finances, caregiving, and living conditions • Digital environments and online experiences • Meaning, purpose, and everyday functioning • Access to appropriate professional support This broader perspective is especially important because not every mental-health challenge can be solved with a self-care checklist. I recently put these ideas together in a new evidence-based 2026 guide for HealthNest1, including what mental health means, how it differs from mental illness, what can influence it, signs that deserve attention, and when professional help may be appropriate. Read the full: https://lnkd.in/drTJbvzn One important reminder: Mental health information should help people understand their options—not encourage self-diagnosis. Persistent or severe symptoms should be discussed with a qualified healthcare professional. In the U.S., people experiencing suicidal thoughts or urges to self-harm can call or text 988 for immediate crisis support; call 911 for a life-threatening emergency. What do you think has the biggest influence on mental well-being today: social connection, financial stress, work pressure, digital life, or something else?
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My own thoughts regarding the Lindsay Clancy case… Mental health providers we have to do better. I’ve said this for Years, people aren’t property. If you as a provider have a lack of knowledge, experience, or understanding on something that is life threatening or could cause serious harm to those you are working with, REFER OUT. Ego has no place in this profession. The lack of communication between providers, lack of collaboration, and failure to communicate with previous providers is NEGLIGENT. Again Ego has no place in this profession. Lack of respect for the person you took an ethical oath to protect. Practice providing more protections than creating more possible harm. Medication OVERLOAD! There is absolutely no reason she should have been prescribed all those medication in such a short time frame. (I’m not even a mental health prescriber and I know that!) The lack of proper assessments for postpartum was embarrassing. Giving someone a simple PHQ-9 to someone that voiced being a high risk for suicide was again negligence. Anytime I am doing a simple Substance Evaluation, I’m looking for signs of high risk and high need first! If I even suspect a history of mental health, I’m asking the individual to sign releases to any and all providers they have seen in the last 5 YEARS! Why? Because as a licensed counselor it’s my job to ensure I’m not missing something that could result in harm of the person or potential harm to others. My ego never steps in a room with me while I’m supporting someone. If I think they need more support, or a higher level of care, I’m collaborating with providers in the community I know can support them in any way I cannot. Behavior Health is a multidisciplinary approach. It takes a village. This trial was infuriating and embarrassing how egotistical providers can be. We have to stop hoarding clients for the sake of stroking our egos. It’s not about us, it’s about the person. And dear GOD PUT THE FUCKING PRESCRIPTION PAD AWAY!! Listen to understand not to write, know what you’re doing in THAT AREA before you start calling your self an expert. So many people are misdiagnosed and way over medicated, this is WHY Lindsay IS HERE. The mental health system failed her children, herself, and now no one wants to own their part. Postpartum depression is very real, the lack of knowledge, empathy, and compassion is why women don’t speak up. She should’ve never been left alone with herself and her thoughts, let alone her children. This is an epic tragedy and failure by all that loved her, and treated her. I truly hope the national attention this trial got will make providers stop to re-evaluate how they approach care. We have to do better and setting our egos aside, communicate with others providers, stop the medication cycle without truly understanding the PERSON. May some positive change come from this. Absolutely heartbreaking 💔
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