Worth Reading: Inside the Teen-Run Hotline Meeting America’s Mental Health Crisis | An Encouraging Development

Worth Reading: Inside the Teen-Run Hotline Meeting America’s Mental Health Crisis | An Encouraging Development

Why this story matters: While challenges remain, stories like this demonstrate that constructive action can make a real difference. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to mental health, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. O n weekday evenings between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. PST, the small, softly lit Teen Line office in Culver City, CA, begins to buzz. A handful of high schoolers — many still in their school sweatshirts — settle into cubicles, put on headsets and begin answering calls, texts and emails from other teenagers who need someone to talk to. For more than four decades, Teen Line has been demonstrating the power of a simple but radical idea: That sometimes the best person to talk to about teenage problems is another teenager. Founded in 1980 as the Center for the Study of Young People in Groups, the grassroots nonprofit evolved into a vital resource for young people struggling with stress, loneliness, relationships and mental heal…