Co-Designing A Healthier Future for Youth in the Carolinas

CaroNova aims to reimagine a health system that integrates emotional and social well-being along with mental health supports into all aspects of health for school-aged youth.

In the Carolinas, rates of youth depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation are significantly higher than they were a decade ago. The growing demand for youth mental health services is outpacing the current system’s ability to meet the need, leaving far too many youth suffering needlessly through untreated mental illness.

More than 1 in 3 high school students in the Carolinas report feelings of hopelessness, yet nearly 1 in 5 North Carolinians and 1 in 3 South Carolinians ages 3 to 17 are unable to access needed mental healthcare. This failure during such a critical phase of development often has lifelong adverse ramifications, manifesting as mental health disorders, behavioral issues, disturbances in school attendance, and physical ailments.

Access to mental health services and supports for young people in the Carolinas is further complicated by a fragmented system and misaligned standards across states, agencies, and providers. This lack of coordination creates confusion among caregivers and providers, limiting access to needed services and upstream interventions for children, adolescents and their families. Studies by Mental Health America rank the Carolinas in the bottom third nationally at meeting mental healthcare needs in youth.

To respond to this crisis, CaroNova is working with our partners across health, education, and community sectors to co-design and accelerate the implementation of an inclusive system of care for all school-aged youth that integrates emotional and social wellbeing along with mental health supports into all aspects of their health.

Since 2021, CaroNova has been laying the groundwork to advance strategies and initiatives that foster environments where mental wellbeing is prioritized. This includes supporting the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in convening a Master Plan Advisory Committee to draft the South Carolina Behavioral Health Action Plan, a pragmatic roadmap for effective behavioral health services across the state. Building on this effort, CaroNova convened stakeholders (schools, payors, government leaders, and community businesses) in South Carolina to launch the Mental Wellness Through Schools pilot projects, and (with support from Blue Cross NC and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation) convened a convened a Steering Committee in North Carolina to explore the most pressing opportunities to support youth mental wellness in the state.

Further supported by The Leon Levine Foundation and The Duke Endowment, CaroNova is now working to align a bi-state initiative with a long-term goal of establishing Universal Youth Mental Wellness Supports with the goal of creating an environment where every school district across North and South Carolina is capable of offering comprehensive, proactive school-based mental wellness supports to all students by 2035.

CaroNova’s approach to addressing the youth mental health crisis in the Carolinas incorporates evidence-based frameworks and recommendations from organizations such as SAMHSA and the National Center for School Mental Health. In addition, CaroNova continues to test and refine our approach through data-driven evaluation and feedback.

Along with our regional partners, CaroNova is actively gathering local input to ensure youth needs and perspectives remain central to our efforts. This includes hosting Youth Design Days in North Carolina. These interactive, in-person events recruit young people from counties across the state together in one location to engage in a day of human-centered workshops. Youth Design Days amplify the voice of young people in North Carolina by offering them a seat at the table in reimagining a mental wellness system that is not just designed for them, but also with them.

The bi-state Universal Youth Mental Wellness Supports initiative continues to lay the groundwork for reimagining a model of care for the Carolinas that integrates the social, emotional, and mental health services that should be accessible to youth and their families prior to a mental health crisis manifesting. When these services become easier to access, they can greatly reduce, or even prevent, poor mental health outcomes for youth in the Carolinas.

Learn more about our work to design, test, and scale innovative health system solutions here.