According to the 2026 Children Now report scorecard, 94% of individuals aged 14-25 in California have reported mental health concerns each month, on average, and although the California Health and Human Services Agency provides guides and crisis hotlines on their website, families are unable to easily access these resources due to factors like financial hardship.
Several individuals and organizations are advocating for changes to improve the accessibility of these resources, such as Children Now, who are currently supporting Senate Bill 363 which aims to improve the accessibility of mental health care services for youth through mandatory reporting by health insurance of the number of denials/modifications of treatment.
However, assistant professor of social welfare at UCLA David C. Turner III argues that still more needs to be done to address the structural issues impacting the mental health outcomes of Black and Latino boys, such as systemic racism. “The overcriminalization of young people in schools oftentimes forces them to disengage from education. It demonstrates to these young men that they don’t matter, their opinions don’t matter, how they learn doesn’t matter and it creates a very dehumanizing environment for them,” said Turner, according to an article by CalMatters.
