24,000 adolescents have spoken: Mentors make a difference in mental health

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By Jean Rhodes
Globally, one in seven adolescents aged 10-19 experiences a mental disorder, accounting for 15% of the global burden of disease in this age group. In the United States, the situation has become particularly dire, with approximately 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness during the past year, with female students experiencing significantly higher rates at 53% compared to 28% for male students. At the same time, formal mental health services remain inadequately equipped to meet the overwhelming demand.  Recent national data from the United Kingdom highlight that only about one in four adolescents reported accessing any form of mental health support in the previous year, despite well-documented increases in mental health challenges among this age group (White et al., 2024). This gap between need and access underscores the urgency of understanding how young people seek help, and what types of support they find most helpful.

The OxWell Student Survey, conducted in 2023, offers one of the most comprehensive examinations to date of adolescent help-seeking patterns and satisfaction with different sources of support. The study surveyed nearly 24,000 students aged 11 to 18 from English secondary schools and colleges. Participants were asked about their use of 18 different types of support over the past year, grouped into three categories: informal (such as friends and family), semi-formal (including school-based services, charities, and helplines), and formal (such as health and social care professionals). For each type accessed, respondents also rated how helpful they found the support, allowing for a nuanced analysis of both utilization and satisfaction.

The findings reveal that informal support networks are the backbone of adolescent mental health care. Twenty-three percent of all surveyed adolescents reported turning to informal sources, such as parents, caregivers, and friends, with the vast majority (between 87% and 91%) finding this support helpful. This high level of satisfaction held true even among those with elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression. Semi-formal supports, accessed by about 10% of respondents, were most often provided by nonparent caring adults (i.e., mentors), such as teachers, coaches, nonprofit leaders, and guidance counselors but also included peer mentors. Notably, these semi-formal sources were also rated highly: 82% of those who sought help from other adults at school and 74% who engaged with peer mentors found the support helpful. In contrast, formal supports including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), general practitioners, and private therapists were accessed by less than 7% of adolescents and were generally rated less favorably, with only 55.5% finding the service helpful (White et al., 2024).

More than half of those who accessed any support used multiple sources, weaving together informal, semi-formal, and formal help as needed. This pattern suggests that young people rely on a networked approach to mental health care, seeking out the most accessible and acceptable options first and supplementing with others as necessary.

Given these findings, there is a clear opportunity to bridge the persistent gaps in adolescent mental health support by investing in semi-formal sources, especially schools and peer mentors. Teachers, school staff, coaches, and peer mentors are not only highly accessible and familiar to students but are also perceived as helpful and carry less stigma than formal mental health services. With additional training in mental health literacy, identification, and referral skills, these semi-formal providers could play an even more pivotal role in early identification, ongoing support, and connection to formal care when needed. Furthermore, integrating mental health training into the professional development of school staff and mentoring programs can help normalize mental health conversations, reduce stigma, and ensure that help is available where young people already feel comfortable seeking it. By empowering and equipping semi-formal sources particularly within schools and communities, mental health systems can become more responsive, accessible, and attuned to the real preferences and needs of young people.

White, S. R., Soneson, E., OxWell Study Team, & Fazel, M. (2024). Networks of care for the modern adolescent. Psychological Medicine, 54, 4537–4550.