Teens in southeast Michigan go to school carrying with them far more than backpacks, books and water bottles.

Many are shouldering economic hardship, exposure to adversity and discrimination, family responsibilities, uncertainty about the future and social pressures.

These sentiments were shared with our research teams repeatedly during focus groups we held in Detroit in 2024 and during 2026 community advisory meetings in Flint.

I am a pediatric psychologist, researcher and mother to a tween and teen who has worked with Michigan youth and families for over a decade. My research focuses on addressing youth mental health challenges through early intervention, community partnerships and making mental health care easier to access.

Teens today face threats to their well-being beyond what many adults immediately recognize, along with barriers to getting help that make it tough to get better.

Mental health risks teens face

Because they interact with teens regularly, school personnel may be especially well positioned to offer insights into the teen mental health landscape.

Our research team included members from Michigan State University, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. The team ran five in-person focus groups with 25 school personnel at a Detroit public high school in order to better understand the mental health of local teens. The groups were mostly made up of teachers, along with coaches, administrators and support staff.

Participants told us students were struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma and exhaustion.

“A lot of students feel exhausted. Every single day,” one focus group attendee said. Staff described students as often seeming physically and mentally worn down and checked out. “It’s like, if you have one or two bad days in a week, I can understand that, but it’s every single day for months on end.”

School personnel also reported concerns about teens using substances like alcohol and marijuana, getting into fights and having thoughts of suicide – issues often framed by the focus group participants as consequences of unaddressed mental health challenges, or as the students’ best efforts to cope with stress.

National findings aren’t much different. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention polled over 20,000 U.S. high school students in 2023 and found that nearly 4 in 10 experienced persistent sadness and hopelessness, while 1 in 5 had seriously considered suicide.

Not all teens carry the same risk. For example, compared to young men, young women who completed the survey were about twice as likely to have felt persistently sad and hopeless, had poor mental health, seriously considered suicide or attempted suicide.

Teens identifying as LGBTQ+ were two to three times more likely to experience those same mental health challenges than their peers who identified as heterosexual and whose gender identity aligned with their sex assigned at birth.

Black teens were less likely to report poor mental health but more likely to report attempting suicide than white teens.

Hardships outside the classroom

Detroit school personnel and our Flint community-based advisory boards also described how teen mental health concerns often stemmed from everyday life.

Many teens experience stress because of housing instability, serious financial strain and transportation difficulties. These challenges can be compounded by family stress – things like parents working multiple jobs or extended work hours to make ends meet, caretaking for siblings or older family members, family conflict or teens themselves working to support their families.

Research suggests that by the age of 18, most youth will have been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event or life circumstance that threatens their sense of safety, stability, or ability to form healthy relationships with others – also known as adverse childhood experiences or ACEs. Common ACEs include things like abuse, witnessing or experiencing violence, growing up in a household with substance use or mental health problems, or experiencing instability due to parental separation or a family member being in prison.

“They bring that baggage, that drama, that trauma to school with them … The people surrounding them all have similar situations,” one educator told us.

In Flint, there were six shootings during a single weekend in August 2026, two of which were fatal, and one victim was a teenage boy. Many local leaders and community members – including educators, advocates and law enforcement – remain concerned about youth gun violence in both Detroit and Flint, where efforts like the Community Safety Collaborative Dashboard and more are underway to prevent future incidents.

Overwhelmed adults

Teens aren’t the only ones struggling.

Parents on advisory boards also talked about feeling overwhelmed by competing demands, stress and concerns about teens’ well-being. Educators in the focus groups talked about feeling responsible for supporting youth while lacking sufficient training and resources.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m helpless,” a participant shared.

Others spoke about the lasting emotional toll of responding to student crises, including suicide attempts.

These findings mirror recent national data that show high levels of stress and burnout among parents and educators, and that educator distress is linked to poorer student mental health outcomes.

Addressing teens’ needs requires resources and trust

In my role as a mom and my work with youth and caregivers in Michigan, I regularly hear this strong sentiment: Create nothing for us, without us. Teens, community members and parents want to be part of building the mental health interventions of the future.

And their involvement matters because young people often know best what gets in the way of seeking help. Teens don’t always seek mental health help when they need it. They worry about being misunderstood, lack the words to talk about difficult emotions, and aren’t sure whom to trust and when to share their concerns.

Research suggests that safe spaces – those where providers are trustworthy, affirm all aspects of teens’ identities, and where teens feel they are seen and understood – are the foundation upon which all other mental health supports must be built.

Grounded in these ideas, our team developed a model that trains school staff to recognize and support students with physical and mental health concerns, while connecting them to additional services when needed.

And that matters because access to care in the community remains a challenge. In a recent survey, Detroit residents identify a lack of mental health services, a shortage of qualified professionals and not enough mental health facilities as big reasons it’s hard to find and access mental health care when it’s needed.

What do teens say they need?

In 2025, we organized an advisory board of 12- to 17-year-olds based in Flint. They meet every few months to help us develop a program to promote teen well-being.

Board members told us they want programs with food, fun, social connection and mentorship, without lectures and judgment. They want spaces where they can speak openly around “safe adults,” and conversations that focus on strengths rather than problems and shortcomings.

“Programs should be about life-bettering,” one teen told us.

These messages have stayed with me. Young people are not simply asking adults to prevent crises. They are asking for the relationships, opportunities and supports needed to build healthy, meaningful and thriving lives.

Crystal Cederna is the owner of Cederna Consulting PLLC. She also receives funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.