Rural Minds launches national rural youth mental wellness program addressing youth suicide crisis

New program pairs Northwestern University’s Lab for Scalable Mental Health with a rural teen advisory committee to close gaps in youth mental healthcare

MAYVILLE — Rural Minds, the national nonprofit dedicated to rural mental health, today announced a new nationwide initiative to provide tools and resources to respond to the mental health crisis afflicting teenagers in rural America. 

The national launch of its Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program will be anchored by a new set of free, digital self-help sessions, called “Single Session Interventions (SSIs)” adapted in partnership with Northwestern University’s Lab for Scalable Mental Health and delivered through a digital platform built by Koko. The rollout coincides with National Suicide Prevention Month. 

The rural-specific SSIs are brief, self-guided digital modules that teach teens ways of understanding and coping with depression, anxiety, and stress. They can be completed online, anonymously, in about 10 minutes, at no cost and with no clinician needed, making them especially valuable for rural communities where mental health providers are scarce. The tools are accessible from the Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program webpage with the September national rollout.

“A young person’s ZIP code should never determine whether they can access meaningful mental health support where and when they need it,” said Dr. Jessica Schleider of Northwestern University’s Lab for Scalable Mental Health. “Our lab is thrilled to partner with Rural Minds as they champion evidence-based, anonymous, freely available support tools designed to overcome barriers to help-seeking faced by rural youth across the country.” 

Rural teens face mental health challenges distinct from their urban peers, including isolation, stigma, and limited access to care. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the suicide rate for rural youth ages 15 to 19 is 74% higher than for their urban counterparts. Most existing mental health resources were not designed with rural young people in mind, a gap the SSIs and the broader program were built to close.

“Rural youth face a mental health crisis that’s been largely invisible to the rest of the country,” said Jeff Winton, founder and chairman of Rural Minds. “The Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program was built with rural teens, not just for them, and this launch is a major step toward no young person being left without support simply because of their ZIP code. 

The program launches nationally following a successful pilot in Pennsylvania and New York with support from Boehringer Ingelheim; the national rollout is sponsored by the Sompo Foundation. It was built from the direct input of a teen and young adult program advisory committee, whose members shared their own experiences and rural perspectives to help shape the program content and delivery from the ground up.

“We are proud to support Rural Minds’ work to advance mental wellness in rural America,” said Faith Frank, Executive Director of the Sompo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sompo. “Both Sompo and the Sompo Foundation are proud to stand behind this program that will focus on young people in rural communities.”

“Supporting the pilot of this program in Pennsylvania and New York showed us what becomes possible when rural young people help design the resources meant to serve them,” said Vanessa Pott Semedo, Head of Global Patient Engagement, Boehringer Ingelheim International. “We are proud to see the Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program reach teens nationwide.”

The program’s online hub also offers practical resources, social support tips, and culturally relevant content organized by topic, including anxiety, depression, substance use, suicide prevention, and LGBTQ+ youth, along with a toolkit to equip parents, teachers, and community members with program content to support the young people in their lives.

The combination of rural lived experience, youth-centered design, and academic partnership behind the program, anchored by the SSIs, is not found in existing national programs. The program will continue to evolve based on ongoing feedback, including a survey accessible from the program webpage on the Rural Minds website at www.RuralMinds.org.