California’s collective need to attend to the mental health of its young people is obvious. In a study last year, 94% of those surveyed aged 14 to 25 reported struggling with mental health challenges in an average month, and one third rated their mental health overall as either fair or poor.
All of those numbers have been on the rise over the past several years, particularly during and immediately after the pandemic. But kids’ ability to access mental health care is compromised on multiple fronts, including by a lack of providers. The federal defunding of Medicaid and Obamacare will also cost millions of Californians their health coverage.
