Nevada teen mental health talk set for Sept. 9

Discussions on youth mental health and improved networks for and among teens are moving forward, with nonprofit Hope Means Nevada keeping a focus on eliminating youth suicide rates in the state.

HMN will hold its next virtual statewide discussion with board and teen committee members on Monday, Sept. 9 to continue strengthening state efforts for families experiencing emotional or behavioral issues or crises among their teens.

“These roundtables in their differing variations are a meeting of the minds,” HMN Executive Director Ciera Bellavance said. “We have a group of teens, health networks and board members in our work coming together with ideas and opinions regularly for the all the work that we do and we wanted to ensure as we were going into the last school year that we as nonprofits, colleagues and supporters of our teams and the school districts that we were listening to the needs of the schools and counselors and seeing what we could on our end to do to help.”

Scheduled speakers include Bellavance of Las Vegas; Julie Murray, president and co-founder of HMN in Las Vegas; Annie Zucker, board member of HMN in Reno; Addison Clark, HMN Teen Committee member in Reno; Grace Netski, HMN Teen Committee member in Las Vegas; and Chase Williams, HMN Teen Committee member in Las Vegas.

In a January discussion this year, Clark, who was a senior at Sage Ridge School in Reno, shared her experience helping friends after losing a friend to suicide. From these previous collaborations, Bellavance said the Washoe County School District has seen a teen coalition form to provide peer support on mental health needs, and the implementation has been positive for students and schools.

HMN also will focus on solutions to helping its rural areas, Bellavance said, some of which will be to look ahead to the 2025 legislative session. The need for more funding to increase its own capacity will be one platform, even as its volunteers can help reach teens through its social media channels. But if a teen were to ask a parent to travel to a local event even an hour or two away, it can be straining on families, she said, and she hoped to bring more activities to rural communities.

“We hope to bring the rural voices,” Bellavance said. “I grew up in a small town of 1,500 north of Las Vegas. It’s very close to my heart. I recognize there’s a lack of services for rural Nevadans. I’m glad Sen. (Catherine) Cortez Masto is touching on it. There is not only a lack of resources, but there’s a lack of driving into the nearest town especially for a teenager. At HMN, we’ve been applying for funding where we can expand more to rural Nevadans, specifically to the rural areas and provide more support to the schools.”

One of HMN’s successes has been its annual Smash Stress campaign in April, a monthlong series of programming that has grown year over year and coincides with National Stress Awareness Month. The Smash Stress peer-to-peer effort encourages teens to log onto social media daily, incorporates different themes and is accessible through HMN’s Facebook, X and Instagram pages. Its growth in the total of social media impressions in teens who are participating and viewing the information HMN is posting on its mental health programs and resources, Bellavance said.

The organization in its first year, according to its statistics, tracked 24,163 impressions and 1,661 engagements in 2020. In 2024, the number of impressions for the campaign was 139,503 with 6,165 impressions. What began as a nominal number engagement rate gradually is increasing by applying different themes.

“It’s very successful,” Bellavance said. “We’ve seen an uptick in teens who are getting these resources and they’re getting positive social media posts in their news feeds, more engagement and they’re talking more together. They’re able to brainstorm and talk to their friends because we’ve asked them to include friends.”

Bellavance said she looks forward to the discussion and the year as the Nevada Legislature brings opportunities to shed light on addressing teen mental health while partnering with organizations such as the Children’s Advocacy Alliance. She said the HMN website also offers resources for adults or counselors as well who might have questions about how to help their children or students.

“We want to make sure adults feel empowered, too,” she said.