Youth Mental Health is in Crisis. Can Behavioral Science Help?

But first, what does “youth” really mean?

Supporting young people’s mental health begins with clearly defining what “youth” means in the Canadian context, particularly in relation to how different age groups access mental health tools and services. A key issue is how young people’s age alone can limit their ability to access mental health care and support.

According to Statistics Canada, the term “youth” typically refers to individuals aged 15 to 24, though some mental health services extend this range to include ages 12 to 24. This broad definition often lumps together individuals at very different stages of development, with distinct needs and experiences.² With this in mind, we can zoom in on three key considerations: mental health coverage and eligibility, developmental milestones, and seamless, tailored access to services. 

An unignorable caveat is that the mental health needs of young people aged 12 to 24 are too complex to be neatly captured by a single category. Within this range, individual differences show great variation depending on specific age, identity, and context. We are only at the tip of the iceberg.

Still, broad age-range labels like 12 to 24 can hold value: they reflect real patterns in lived experience, help capture those who might otherwise be overlooked, and acknowledge the continued mental and emotional development that extends into the early 20s. Beyond the age range, we can’t lose sight of the bigger issue at hand—the challenges youth face when seeking mental health support are compounded by a fundamental lack of access to that support in the first place.

Meeting youth where they are

“You just don’t get what it's like for kids these days.”

The above quote captures what it feels like for many young people struggling with their mental health. Bridging the gap between understanding and access often starts by organizing services into broad categories—like by age—which helps providers reach diverse groups with overlapping needs. Organizations like Foundry in B.C. or Youth Wellness Hubs in Ontario follow this guideline by focusing on the 12-24 age group.³, ⁴ This involves categorizing young people and their needs while recognizing unique experiences and backgrounds. 

Adolescence and young adulthood represent a critical life stage, one that reminds us that developmental trajectories are idiosyncratic. Coping with challenges while growing up will be different for each young person, underscoring the importance of meeting them where they are, not where they’re expected to be. On that note, it's important to emphasize the role of culture in shaping mental health: whether mental health is accepted, stigmatized, or embraced; how treatment takes form—through medicine, social relationships, rituals, or traditional therapies; and even how mental health conditions are understood within a society, group, or community—all of these are deeply influenced by cultural context.

Considering real-life transitions and lived experience

“Growing up is hard enough, especially when you're still figuring out who you are in a world that's changing just as fast."

What it means to experience changes in teenage and early adulthood is as dynamic as ever. Young people are now exposed to many perspectives, societal pressures, and the inescapable influence of the internet from very early on. Understanding these complex challenges means we have to pay attention to when transitions happen, and how lived experiences inform the mental health trajectories of young people, whether it results in resilience, trauma, or a bit of both. From teens overusing ChatGPT to iPads being used as pacifiers, some crucial points here include:

1. From the turbulent start of adolescence to the coming of age in early adulthood, 12 to 24 captures the actual time frame when mental health shifts significantly and identities take shape.⁵ Risk factors are on full display during this time, and social proof has a significant influence.
2. Taking a biopsychosocial approach is essential for developmental transitions and real-life experiences. Unlike traditional medical models, where problems are disease-oriented, a biopsychosocial framework critically considers the origins of mental health struggles from observing biology, psychology, and social factors. It’s not only about changes in social settings, hormonal and emotional switches, and the interplay between them.
3. The 12-24 age group faces distinct pressures worthy of different support. This age range isn’t a mere legal category; it reflects a shared period of change marked by school transitions, growing identities, and social and cultural pressures. For young people seeking mental health support, their needs aren’t perfectly congruent with child or adult systems. Instead, services must be designed for their realities, not the general population.

Keeping the handoff smooth and age-appropriate

“I would ask for help if I knew I was included, and it wasn’t so hard to find.”

Asking for help is a challenge across all ages, but the reasons differ. The same holds true when it comes to engaging with mental health services, especially across the wide 12–24 age range, where developmental needs and experiences can vary drastically. A 13-year-old entering high school won’t seek help the same way a 20-year-old college student will. To design resources for such a wide age bracket, the full range of behaviors needs to be considered: from the initial moment a young person thinks to reaching out, all the way to successful access to care. 

Beginning at age 12, we need to design developmentally appropriate services that make support options intuitive and accessible. Extending this support through age 24 gives young people time to build the confidence to ask for help before they age out of the system. Behavioral science can help shape these systems, making it easier for youth to find and engage with the support they need, wherever they are in their mental health journey.

Behavioral science tools to ignite help-seeking

As we reflect on the barriers youth face in finding trusted mental health support, behavioral science offers practical tools to boost help-seeking behavior. These aren’t just theories—they’re strategies so that young people can actually get help. Before connecting the challenges to potential solutions, we’ll focus on three in particular: nudge theory, the EAST framework, and decision architecture.

Before diving into the discussion, let’s begin with some basic behavioural science concepts:

• Nudge: A subtle change in the way options are presented that steers people toward better decisions, while preserving their freedom to choose.
• Sludge: Friction or barriers that make actions harder and discourage someone from following through with a behavior.
• Boost: A strategy that builds people’s decision-making skills or knowledge, empowering them to make better choices on their own over time.
• Choice Architecture: The design, organization, and presentation of choices that shape how decision-makers behave and influence their outcomes.

Nudges, sludges, and boosts are already used by hundreds of nudge units across the globe, including in Canada by the Behavioral Insights Group (BIG) in B.C.^{6 7} So, why not use these resources to promote youth mental health? 

But, we need more than tools to tackle the problem—we need a framework that ensures consistent application. We can take this dilemma to the EAST by making mental health services Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely for youth:

• EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely): A framework developed by the Behavioural Insights Team that shows how to design interventions people are more likely to act on.⁸

We’ll come back to EAST soon. Before we can apply a framework, we have to understand the connection between youth mental health problems and behavioral science. While age-specific needs may seem obvious now, adolescence wasn’t recognized as a distinct “phase” in mental health care until the early 20th century.⁹ Today, youth advocacy is leading the way: young people want autonomy, strengths-based approaches, and a say in the systems meant to support them.10 In helping them find their voice, behavioral science may be the microphone that turns up the volume.