Youth Holistic Wellness in Santa Clara County

South Bay Youth Changemakers (SBYC) is a community organization based in Santa Clara County, California. SBYC builds Asian American youth power by developing young leaders who organize for a more just and sustainable society. We strive to transform economic and social institutions to prioritize people over profit and shape our communities according to our collective needs and values.

Aadya Jain

Amara Fernandes

Dakshata Chidambaram

Daria Cisper

Ella Montalbo

Hannah Yuan

Khoa-Nathan Ngo

Koa Tran

Lantern Nguyen

McKayla Hsu

Nathan Ming

Ria Sudhir

Tommy Leong

Triston Colacicco

Xinpei Lu

Veda Ravi

Los Gatos HS

Archbishop Mitty HS

Evergreen Valley HS

Willow Glen HS

Mission Early College HS

Mission San Jose HS

FUHSD Middle College

Andrew Hill HS

Milpitas HS

Fremont HS

Los Gatos HS

Archbishop Mitty HS

Woodside Priory School

Willow Glen HS

Cupertino HS

Evergreen Valley HS

Project Overview

As part of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) Bright Spots research project, SBYC assessed the current state of holistic wellness in Santa Clara County / South Bay high schools and identified bright spots — existing models, behaviors, and practices that work to support students’ wellness.

To examine these things, we conducted 4 focus groups with South Bay high schoolers to answer these two questions:

What is the current state of holistic wellness in South Bay high school students?

What are bright spots for holistic wellness for South Bay high schoolers?

Demographics

30 participants

15 schools

7 school districts

Our focus groups had 30 participants. Over 80% of participants identified as Asian American, with other participants identifying as White, Black, Latine, Pacific Islander, and/or mixed race, with various ethnicities.

CHANGING UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Do students need this at a young age?

We want students to not have this pressure in a space they spend most of their time in

"The concept of holistic wellness is hardly ever recognized in the context of mental health. "

"The academic pressure in the South Bay really makes mental health not a priority."

THE SOLUTIONS!

UNWIND+RELAX

AUTHENTICITY

"School allows me to express my authentic self." Although school is usually a competitive environment, recognize that the only person you need to compete with is yourself. Be genuine with what you do and do the best you can, and you can be more satisfied with yourself in the process.

"Thewayschoolisstructuredisoneoftheroot causesbecauseithasstrayedawayfroma placeoflearningtoaplaceofcompetitionand pressuretosucceed."

Unrealistic Expectations From Others

Unrealistic expectations from parents, peers, society, and even from oneself cause people to feel bound and limited in terms of school and mental health

Holistic wellness among South Bay highschooler's are not prioritized. Often times, grades and standing out for college admissions take priority over personal well-being.

The structure of schools that promotes and celebrates competition instead of learning, cultural stigma around mental health, the patriarchal values society inherently views as more valuable, the lack of agency students have in creating the systems that dedicates their lives, and more all lead to the apathy of student holistic wellness.

A student's ability to care for their holistic wellness is constantly hindered by the unrealistic expectations set by their family, friends, school, etc. Such pressure often results in competition between students, turning into a rat race that only further disrupts their mental wellbeing. Many begin to feel as though they are failures due to their inability to meet such ridiculous standards.

"Because of the competitive atmosphere, even if we ' re all very similar, ethnically, there's still that level of imposter syndrome. At the same time, you feel like you have to compete with your peers "

"The academic system itself isn't really tolerant of different learning styles or specific needs of certain students "

School-Life Imbalance

Finding school life balance especially in these stressful times of high school has only gotten more difficult over time.

The pressure to be perfect and to do what is ideal for college applications has increased drastically, leading to unhealthy circumstances, such as studying for multiple days and hours on end instead of prioritizing mental health and self care.

"There is too much emphasis on school, and school has too much control over children's lives."

We are losing our own lives because of the academic system.

School-Life Imbalance

There's always a "cloud over your head about school."

Many students feel like their lives are entirely taken up by school, with no time to focus on themselves, personal hobbies, or spend time with family and friends.

"I don't want to spend eight hours at school every day, five days a week. And I also don't want to go home just to spend two more hours of it on homework... I feel like you shouldn't force that on like, children. It feels especially unfair."

"Even when I'm not working on school, I'm constantly stressing about it. And over break, when I'm not stressed, I feel stressed because I feel like I should be stressed".

Inthesouthbay,the ideologyisthateducation andschoolarethekeys toasuccess

negativeimpactonwellbeing/allpartsof cwellnessisanormand onsistentlycommon amongdifferentgroups ofstudents

"Schooltakes everything".

Cultural Stigma

The cultural stigma around mental health that has been endowed within society's past and current results impedes students' abilities to access the help necessary. Since adults have not received treatment, they believe their children also do not, and so the generational trauma is passed down generations.

"Parentscanhaveaneffectonthe mentalhealthofyouthjustas muchasschoolcan,further contributingtothementalhealth crisisyoutharefacing.When parentsdon'tdealwiththeirown childhoodtraumaproperly,they endupinflictingmoretraumaupon theirchildren.It'sacycle"

"Alotofthoseparentsdon’tbelieveinmentalhealth You’renotactuallydepressed,you’rejustmakingan excuse.Thosekindsofthingsarereallyhurtfulbecause itpreventspeoplefromgettingthehelptheyneed"

"parentsnotacceptingthat[youneed mentalhealthcareservices]soit'skindof hardtoseekoutthehelpneeded"Parents canbebarriertoreceivingmentalhealth servicesiftheydonotthinkthatyouneed thehelp"

People tend to believe that having mental health issues is an exaggeration or a made-up false scenario. And while students are constantly faced with the pressure to be "strong and tough," society sees the need for mental health support as a weakness. This stigma is extremely harmful as it acts as a barrier that prevents students f reaching out for help by making feel ashamed and afraid.

Spots

Often times, the stigma on mental health and the roots of unwellness come from home or family life. This means that it is vital that schools take effective action on this issue.

Bright

[around Mental Health] is a cultural thing."

"The

"People don't take advantage of resources even though there's so many of those resources that are available to us. It's really the stigma that holds everyone back."

Tackling this stigma requires mindset changes in families and schools. This can be done with prioritizing the education and awareness on mental health amongst parents, teachers, and students.

"Hearing teachers be vulnerable about their struggles is very helpful. Allows me to relate to them and be comfortable being open to them."

ACCESS T0

VISIONS FOR SOLUTIONS

Implement wellness centers into schools where students can have a variety of resources to choose from, like group therapy or individual counseling

"Instead of admin and counselors creating their own programs, just asking the students what they need so the goals match [is what would actually] be helpful."

"Manytimes, wellness resourcesarenotaccessible Gbecauseofaffordability. oingvirtualisgoodso thatresourcesare accessiblemore frequently."

"[There shouldbe]more advertisement[ofresources]and destigmatizing of[utilizing resources]since a lotofkids don't know how to access them."

VISIONS FOR SOLUTIONS

BRIGHT SPOTS

"wellness centers "wellness centers "wellness centers are very helpful are very helpful are very helpful to kids who to kids who to kids who utilize them." utilize them." utilize them."

SO WHAT NOW?

"[Having]... resources available "[Having] resources available "[Having]... resources available at a school is really helpful at a school is really helpful at a school is really helpful because we get to talk about because ... we get to talk about because ... we get to talk about our problems ... without... our problems ... without... our problems without being at home and being at home and being at home and environment with our families environment with our families environment with our families for them to overhear" for them to overhear" for them to overhear"

Students from all across the south bay have now expressed their recommendations to make wellness resources more accessible, as well as highlighted what resources are already effective...

The next step is to implement these suggestions, the main two being to more adequately advertise wellness resources, and also to incorporate student voice into such programs, as youth spaces should have input from those they are meant to aid.

"I think student involvement would help a lot to "I think student involvement would help a lot to "I think student involvement would help a lot to actually make [resources] impactful to students." actually make [resources] impactful to students." actually make [resources] impactful to students."

ndings

rch illuminates the key issues and ce when it comes to their wellness:

doesn t make room for them to explore personal interests and spend time with loved ones (pages 7-9)

Mental hea largely r students' ho Parents / fa aren’t suppo children’s m wellness c product a generation (page

Unrealistic expecta schools, and ev students to feel bo terms of school a The emphasis on creates a comp schools that pits stu

Current resources either aren’t effective or accessible to students. A lot of schools have mental health counselors or wellness centers, but are limited in availability or are not easy for students to access. (pages 1314)

Recommendations

Throughout our focus groups, one recurring theme came up: there are not many bright spots for youth’s holistic wellness in South Bay high schools. Despite a glaring lack of bright spots, our focus groups have clearly illustrated that youth know what they want and need, but they aren’t centered or involved when wellness initiatives are designed and implemented.

Adequately inform and connect students to existing wellness resources

Provide resources and tools for students to navigate mental health conversations at home

Empower students to have accessible platforms to directly influence mental health services and school decisions that affect them

Take measures to modify curriculum and workload to be less demanding and stressful for students (i.e. capping number of AP classes and/or extracurricular activities)

Address mental health not just in the school context but in the home / family context

E.g. Counter misinformation from social media that parents consume (FB, Wechat, Whatsapp)

LEARNINGS

Our youth members played critical roles in driving this project, from setting the focus of our research project, to facilitating the focus groups with peers, to lifting up key findings from our data.

Our youth members were able to bring in their personal experiences and insights as people directly impacted by this issue of youth holistic wellness. Our project demonstrates the power and potential of change driven by youth and for youth.

This project has built our youth researchers’ belief in their ability to lead and create change as young people. We hope this project demonstrates the importance of centering young people in CYBHI and other initiatives or programs that aim to address youth needs

youth Reflections

"YPAR exposed me to new perspectives and ideas regarding wellness. I learned a lot about holistic wellness, allowing me to better engage with fellow youth and collaborate with them on ways to overcome the hurdles that students face in regards to their mental health. Running focus groups gave me a better understanding of where other students stood on this issue. It was interesting to see how most of the youth in the focus groups shared the same concerns and struggles.

"As I continued to reflect on the state of youth wellness throughout the YPAR n able to find new ways to n struggles with mental r research, I have learned or my mental wellbeing. raged me to look after holistic point of view; eglected for a while. "

g people looking to participate in a u will be exposed to new perspectives, isions beyond the scope of PAR provides a collaborativ u will develop leadership an skills. It will also give you a her like-minded individuals. e a change in your commun u will find the resources, and ithin a YPAR project." -Veda