13 Dec California Offers Two Free Apps to Help Youth Cope With Holiday Stress
(Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash)
By Aina de Lapparent Alvarez
A few years ago, after returning to in-person classes for the first time after lockdown, Ia Lo realized that her students needed more intense emotional, social and behavioral support.
That pushed her to become a counselor and the primary form of psychological help for children and families through her work with Hmong Youth and Parents United in Sacramento.
But she couldn’t be there year-round.
“When schools are going on break, like the winter break,” Lo said, “that means they’re not receiving the intervention, the support until they return back.”
On Tuesday, the state Office of Community Partnership and Strategic Communications shared free resources to help Californians aged 0 to 25 with their mental health through the end of year holidays. Through two free phone apps with coaching, resources and more, California hopes to offer help amid a national shortage of mental health providers and long waitlists.
Ashley Williams, press secretary for the OCPSC, said that between 2019 and 2021, about one-third of California youth expressed a significant period of psychological distress during that time period. Also, two-thirds of youth dealing with depression don’t get the treatment they need.
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“We want to make sure that, through this initiative, we can provide more equitable access to a variety of means for getting the help that they need,” Williams said, “really meet children and youth where they are.”
The apps BrightLife Kids (for caregivers and children aged 0 to 12) and Soluna (for youth aged 13 to 25) are available 24/7, regardless of immigration status and insurance. They were launched early 2024. A number of the coaches are bilingual. The apps also offer services in 19 languages.
Brando Menjivar is one of the coaches who works one on one with the BrightLife children and families. He advises youth to label their emotions as a first step.
“One of the things that we teach kids, it’s like, you have to name it to tame it,” he said. “When I ask a child ‘How are you feeling?’ And they say ‘I’m feeling fine.’ I’m like, ‘Fine is not an emotion.’ So let’s practice labeling that emotion.”
The holidays aren’t happy for everyone, and they can bring painful reminders of loss, like the absence of a parent or the death of a pet, he said. But negative emotions and experiences are part of growing up.
Just look at surfers.
“When a big wave comes, they’re not swimming away from the wave,” he said. “They move towards the wave, right? — in order to accept it and ultimately ride it.”
The coaches are not licensed therapists, but they are trained and have had challenges with mental health. Autumn Boyland, deputy director of the California Department of Health Care Services, said that was a feature, not a failure.
The department reached out to youth before launching the app. They said they wanted to talk to peers and near peers — like coaches — before licensed practitioners. Boyland also said there was research about the effectiveness of peer support and coaches in this space.
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It’s also a way to relieve the pressure on licensed therapists, she said.
To encourage youth to talk among themselves, Soluna includes a peer forum. Moderators make sure it’s a safe space, reviewing posts before approving them. Moderators are on the lookout for hate speech, trolling, inappropriate content, personal information and risk and safety flags around things like suicidal ideation, said Laura Tully, vice president of partnerships at Kooth Digital Health, the company behind Soluna.
The California Department Public Health supports Soluna as part of a $4.6 billion Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative effort to address youth mental health.
According to a National Alliance on Mental Illness study, from 2008 to 2012, 46.3% of white adults with mental health illnesses received mental health services, compared with 41.6% of the American Indian or Alaska Native adults, 30% of Black adults, 27% of Hispanic adults, and 18.1% of Asian adults.
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Coach Menjivar said the apps help correct the inequity — 53% of the families using BrightLife live in underserved communities and 80% identify as BIPOC.
Besides the youth and families, educators and others who work with youth have adopted the apps as resources, teacher turned counselor Lo said: “It gives hope to educational professionals and just professionals who work with the community that there is something that they can give back.”
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