The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) recently launched two new mobile apps offering students free mental health services.
Teenagers and young adults can now access free one-on-one coaching sessions, emergency resources, and wellness exercises with Soluna, an application aimed at adolescents that was released as part of the Behavioral Health Virtual Services Platform.
This is part of California’s CalHOPE program, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health, and the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.
Newsom’s plan aims to provide every Californian with increased access to mental health and substance use services.
According to a study by Pew Research Center, more than 50% of young adults ages 18-29 have experienced some type of high level of psychological distress since March 2020.
Especially in high school, with increased workloads and immense pressure from school, adolescents are more likely to become stressed from frequent tests, quizzes, and projects assigned to them.
“Adolescence is a time of a lot of change in the navigation of difficult identity building stuff, and that plus the stress of the increased workload of high school does mean that mental health can be very important,” said Rosa Horovitz, an ethnic studies teacher at Carlmont High School.
Many students share the belief that high school is a very stressful time.
“I feel like the environment we live in is extremely competitive and that the system is almost designed to put us against each other. It’s so easy to compare yourself to someone else and feel like you’re always behind,” said Sara Ho, a sophomore at Carlmont High School.
In a period when emotional, physical, and mental growth can jumble together with growing expectations, depression, anxiety, and other health concerns can arise.
“As adolescents, it can be a very difficult time, and the pressures of academic and social aspects and social media can compound that and exacerbate some pre-existing mental health issues like anxiety and depression,” said Shelley Bustamante, the mental health support specialist and wellness coordinator at Carlmont High School.
Because of these issues, there is hope that the two new mobile apps will provide students of all ages with easier access to a well-trained wellness coach through online interaction.
However, Bustamante expresses some uncertainty about the online approach to the assistance of children.
“The virtual experience is not always enough of a connection and kids often need to see someone in person for more consistency,” Bustamante said.
