The mental health of youth across the globe is in crisis. Indeed, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Programme on Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being and Development of Children and Adolescents were developed in response to their conclusion that “…across the world, the lives of millions of children, adolescents, and their caregivers are limited by poor mental health and well-being.”^1(p3) 

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have declared a state of emergency, citing increasing rates of youth mental health concerns between 2010 and 2020 that have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.² That youth mental health is in such dire straits is particularly striking given that many measures of global physical health in young people are improving.¹     

^{[JAMA Network]}

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