States helps youth with mental health problems
The secret lies with teen themselves
By: Michael L. Diamond
Asbury Park Press
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Gabby Suriani was in her junior year of high school when she felt her anxiety begin to rise.
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She needed to keep up her grades, excel on her swim team and have a fun social life. But as she scrolled through Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, filled with images f her friends and influencer who were having a grand old time, she worried she was falling short.
..... "I realized to myself one day, 'I don't want to feel like this," said Suriani, 17, now a senior at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School. "Even if I have to go out of my way to find recurses, I will."
..... Suriani is among the high school and college students who are part of the Pre-college students who are are part of the Prevent Suicide New Jersey's Youth Planning Committee, a bid by the state to reach students struggling with mental health. They are coordination their own social media campaign, dropping off flyers at schools and restaurants and making themselves available to their peers who are going through tough times.
..... Organizers say the program is helping the state make inroads as the nation faces what experts say is a mental helaht crisis among teens. For example, New Jersey this year [2025] has the second-highest nationwide rate of youth who are considered to be flourishing, climbing from 14th place a year ago, according to a recent report by the Mental Health Association, an advocacy group.
..... The program could be a solution for adults who haven't figured out how to connect with their children who might be struggling. The answer? Other teens are ready to help.
Young people take the lead
..... "Me at 16 was a long time ago, and the world didn't look like the way it looks today, so I can't relate to a young person today," said Jennie Blakney, the state adolescent health coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Health. "It's not humanly possible for me. But what it is possible for me to do is open doors, open windows, provide opportunities for young people to step into those leadership roles and for them to be the solution to the problems."
..... High school and college students have always felt pressure to be smart, good looking and cool, but studies are finding current students' anxieties are magnified through social media, where they chase "likes" and are met with endless - if somewhat fictional - images of people living their best lives. Or at least livers hat appear to be better than theirs.
..... One result: Some 40% of teens report persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, according to a new report by the New Jersey Education Department's Commission on the Effects of Social Media Usage on Adolescents.
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Students from the youth planing committee said they have learned to keep what they see on social media in perspective - no small task given that teens achieve a median of 237 notifications a day from social media sites, one study found.
..... "I see these people going out to restaurants and movies and having fun with their friends, and it feels like I'm trapped in this echo chamber, while I'm keeping my head down and working and working and working,: said Vaishnavi Shankar, 18, and a senior at the Woodbridge Academy Magnet School. "So that's kind of when I realized that when I feel that felling again, that I know I have to put down the phone and I have to take a few deep breaths and relax because that's not showing an accurate representation of everyone's life.
..... The Health Department cerated several youth advisory committees with the help of a $3.7 million federal grant in 2021 to help students who were driven into isolation during the pandemic, taking a toll on their mental health.
..... The Youth Planning Committee is made up of more than 20 students who met twice a week during the sumer and less frequently during the school year. And they have been
trained on suicide prevention, safe messaging and public helaht issues.
..... The idea: enlist tween to cerate their own social media campaign to serve as a lifeline and become resources for their peers, Blakney said.
Dumping the taboo
..... Students say they have become better equipped to talk about mental health issues and suicide, which once were considered off limits.
.... "Suicide isn't talked about enough, especially in the little town where I live,: said Sarah Blakney, Jennie's daughter who is a 19-eyar-old nursing student at Ocean County College and lives in Waretwon (Ocean Township). "Nobody, r4elaly touches on how big it is, and it is very big, especially in our community."
..... "But it's just the fact that you need that little push in order to get something going and everyone that I talked to about it said that it was amazing," she said. "it was a great idea and it was exactly that little push that we needed."
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Ashley Ring, 21, a Rutgers University senior and psychology major, said she took flyers into the restaurant she manages, and has noticed a subtle change in how people talk about suicide.
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"I live in Woodbridge, and when people bring up suicide, it's often the butt of a joke," Ring said. "When I catch people talking about it at my restaurant, they see a flyer or something like that, it;s a genuine conversation."
..... New Jersey is better off than most states. The Garden State ranked third nationwide in 2025 when measured by there ate of mental illness and access to behavioral health care, up form fifth the previous year, according to the Mental Health Association. The group took into account 17 factors, including suicidal thoughts, substance use disorder and whether insurance covered behavioral health.
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The state made progress in three of the four measures for youth mental health:
* Youths ages 12 to 17 who are considered flourishing - which broadly measures resilience, curiosity and other factors that led to a meaningful life - grew form 61.8% to 64.5%.
* Youths with at least one major depressive episode in the past year [2024] shrank form 19.7% to 18.3%.
*
Youth with serious thoughts of suicide declined slightly form 12.7 to 12.6%.
* Youth with substance sue disorder rose form 7.3% to 7.8%.
..... Still, doctors at Hackensack Meridian Helaht said social media can have an impact beyond just mental health. They say "rage bait" - posts designed to elicit outrage and frustration, whether they are true or not - can be harmful both the brain and the heart.
..... "Anger and rage can get the stress hormone cortisol overcharged," said Dr. Gary Small, director of Behavioral Helaht Breakthrough Therapies at Hackensack Meridian. "Frequent consumption of rage bait can lead to anxiety and depression, and for some people with trauma in there past, these posts will be a trigger for negative reactivity."
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His advice: be discerning about what sites to visit, take breaks from scrolling and seek positive or educational content.
..... The students say teens have help available thorough programs such as 2nd Floor and apps such as Soluna. And the students said they have become confidants for their peers.
..... "I think when I first came into the program, mental health for me was a little bit of a taboo topic in the sense that I didn't really know what the correct way was to approach it" said Ishanvi Desai, 17, a senior at Woodbridge Academy Magnet School. "When someone comes with me, I can now feel confident and comfortable total to them and help support them through whatever they're facing."
..... Michale L. Diamond is a business reporter at the Asbury Park Press. He has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry since 1999. He can be reached at mdiamond@app.com.