Sarah Howell, Katharine Neill Harris and Najah Callander (L-R) participate in Houston Community Media’s briefing entitled “Mental Health Concerns of Houston’s Teens & Young Adults” as moderator Sandy Close sits in the background (Photo Credit: Jon Guevara/Our Voices).
On May 21, Houston Community Media shone a spotlight on an issue that had long been ignored in homes and schools throughout the United States.
The organization of Houston journalists and media executives hosted a media briefing entitled “Mental Health Concerns of Houston’s Teens & Young Adults,” which emphasized the need for therapy and more counseling in and outside of schools.
“Therapy is a professional friendship,” said Sarah Howell, clinical social worker and therapist.
Because of more open discussions about mental health, the goal is for the younger generation to have more outlets to express what they are going through in life, whether it is with friends, peers or a professional.
Back in the day, the term mental health probably never came up much in conversations, even when discussing the most vulnerable and impressionable demographic, the children.
When a young boy dealt with stress, not fitting in or other problems, a male role model in their lives often told them to suck it up.
When a young girl talked about a relative touching them inappropriately, parents and grandparents often chose to ignore it because they did not want to air the family’s dirty laundry, or they were in denial about their troubled family member.
Unfortunately, troubled and scarred children and teenagers often become troubled and scarred adults.
And the way a young person was taught to deal with mental health issues is often the way they teach the next generation to deal with it.
As a result, a never-ending cycle of abuse and denial is sometimes passed down from generation to generation like genetics.
Howell said that the pain young people experience can turn into anger as they reach adulthood.
Furthermore, she said that anger is more acceptable than crying, especially for males who are taught that manliness is not showing emotions that many consider weak.
While Howell has a great professional friendship with many of her clients, the fear of immigration has dissuaded many from coming in to get the mental health help that they probably need.
Many of Howell’s clients are from the Central American, Asian and Filipino communities in Houston.
Additionally, Howell said that adults must be real with children because they can sense hypocrisy.
Many adults live by the motto, “do as I say, not as I do.”
But hypocrisy hurts an adult’s credibility with children, and they often tune hypocrites out because they can sense when someone is being genuine or not.
Many successful mentors and parental-like figures can better connect with youth when they are open and honest about their past mistakes and their own turbulent childhood and young adulthood.
Katharine Neill Harris works as a fellow in drug policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
The organization researched students from the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in 2023 to learn more about their mental health concerns and potential substance use and abuse.
Data from the 2025 survey has not been published.
Speaking on the 2023 data, Harris said, “First, speaking to mental health, when students were asked about their mental health, nearly 42 percent said that they felt sad or (hopeless) to the point where they stopped regular activities last year. This was a 32 percent increase since 2017.
“We have an increase in students who report having considered suicide, having made a plan for it, or having attempted it. In 2023, 14 percent of HISD students said that they had attempted suicide.”
Harris said those numbers are higher for females and those from the LGBTQ+ community.
She added, “We also looked at bullying as this is something that impacts mental health. It also can impact academic performance. HISD students did report less bullying compared to the national average, but we have seen an uptick in recent years. About 16 percent say they’ve been bullied on campus and another 14 percent say they’ve been bullied online. So, it’s not mutually exclusive, right? There could be overlap, but we [see it as] a slight uptick from the previous survey.
“And about a fifth of HISD students said that they hadn’t attended school at some point because they felt unsafe. This was somewhat more prevalent among female than male students. It was more common among Black and Latino students than White and Asian students. And it was also more common among students who identified as gay or lesbian.
“Moving on to substance use again, poor mental health can lead to substance use. Substance use can exacerbate mental health issues. So, I think it’s important to look at the two things together. Some good news on this front is that there has been a long-term decline in alcohol consumption and binge drinking. This is both for HISD and nationally. It also happens to be the case for adults. And we also see this trend in other Western democracies as well.”
The recent trend in education is to have fewer counselors on campus to help students deal with life issues.
As a result, partnerships have been created so that students and their families can receive help via Sunrise Centers, as well as telehealth help to deal with mental health issues.
Speaking about the telehealth service, Najah Callander, deputy chief of family and community partnerships for HISD, said, “So kids have access to that before school, after school and during school. And so, they can even log on and have their mental health session at home, if that’s what makes the most sense and…what we are realizing and what we know is that our students are reaching out and they’re flagging that they need the mental health support, so they’re putting that on their parents.”
Despite all the stress that this generation of children endures, Callander praises the younger generation for admitting when they need help.
Callander said, “I don’t know that I would have had the courage, the words, the moxie to advocate for myself in that way, in the way that I see my child do it. My child’s friends do it. I mean, to be able to raise your hand and say, I need something I’m not getting gives me a lot of hope.”
And the fact that Sunrise Centers are there to fill in the gaps created by cuts in school counselors gives Callander hope that the students’ needs will not be ignored.
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