Teens in America are suffering. More than five million young people experienced depression last year, up from two million in 2010. Suicide is now a leading cause of death among teenagers.‍

‍These trends alarmed leaders at Crisis Text Line, one of the nation’s largest text-based mental health providers. The organization’s CEO asked Common Good Labs to help them find solutions to reduce depression and suicide among children.  ‍

Collaborative Partnership. We worked with the staff of Crisis Text Line to review thousands of anonymized conversations between adolescents and mental health counselors. Our teams analyzed these conversations using natural language processing, a machine learning technique that finds patterns in large sets of text.‍

This analysis revealed that young people tend to use a consistent set of resources to cope with depression and other mental health challenges. Teens say they find helpful support from opportunities to connect with peers, such as clubs and after-school programs. They also cope by making art and music, using mental health services, and by playing sports.

What Resources Do Young People Use to Cope with Mental Health Crises?

Unfortunately, our policy researchers found that many communities have been cutting back the resources young people say they need the most. Over the last 15 years, spending on programs like arts education and after-school clubs has declined in much of the nation.

Our place-based analyses also showed that over 32 million children live in areas without enough mental health providers, with rural counties hardest hit. Even within cities, access differs dramatically by neighborhood.

Percent of Children Who Lack Adequate Access to Mental Health Workers

Translating Research into Results. Leaders from Crisis Text Line and Common Good Labs co-presented our findings at a Congressional Briefing hosted by the Senate’s Bipartisan Mental Health Caucus. The event included congressional staff members as well as Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Alex Padilla (D-CA).

Our findings were cited in the announcement of the EARLY Minds Act currently under consideration in Congress. This bipartisan legislation will empower states to use existing federal funding for prevention and early intervention activities that improve mental health.

Our teams also co-published a national research report on our findings. The report was featured on NBC News and in other national outlets. 

Since its release, leaders from Crisis Text Line have presented the findings at conferences and events. Other mental health partners and researchers continue to cite it in their work and advocacy.