(Opinion) Investing in youth mental health in New Hampshire

Dartmouth Health has been working to improve the lives of young people

HEALTHCARE

By: WILL TORREY AND JENNIFER MCLAREN

The nationwide youth mental health crisis has seen marked improvements in New Hampshire since 2021, but the problem is still far from fixed. Indeed, while the measured outcomes are getting better compared to the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures today are still historically concerning compared to a decade ago.

Getting past the height of COVID has been an important factor in the improvement of youth mental health, but intensive efforts in New Hampshire to build out high-quality mental health services for youth have also contributed to better outcomes. The challenge remains large, but our success inspires us to press forward. We believe that sustained investment and implementation of evidence-based practices will bring New Hampshire out of this crisis.

The most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that the share of students in New Hampshire feeling persistently sad and hopeless decreased to about 34% from a peak of 44% in 2021. Commenting on the improvement, NH Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commissioner Lori Weaver said, “This progress shows that when services and supports are accessible, our youth can experience better outcomes.”

While acknowledging that there is still a long way to go, we at Dartmouth Health are delighted at the progress, and we urge the state to continue building upon that important work. Thankfully, there is an opportunity to expand access to those services and supports. Social media giant Meta Platforms recently agreed to a landmark $18 billion settlement and promised to implement safety features designed to protect children on Instagram and Facebook. Of that, the state of New Hampshire is set to receive up to $224 million over 10 years.

Like DHHS and our community mental health colleagues, Dartmouth Health has been putting its shoulders to the wheel to improve the lives of young people. Two years ago, we offered no inpatient psychiatric care for children or adolescents. Now, we provide all the inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric care available in New Hampshire. Here are just a few examples of the work Dartmouth Health is doing to support youth mental health:

Dartmouth Health Children’s leases Hampstead Hospital, a 65-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital, from the state to provide treatment for youth. From July 1, 2024, through August 2026, Hampstead Hospital cared for 1,886 young people.

We created a six-bed Adolescent Medical Psychiatry unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) that offers a critically needed and scarce level of care for adolescents whose serious psychiatric illness occurs alongside complex medical conditions. Since opening in April 2025, the DHMC Adolescent Medical Psychiatry Unit has cared for 281 young people.

The dedicated Dartmouth Health faculty and staff at Hampstead and DHMC have enhanced the…