Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to slow down, check in, and remind ourselves that mental health is not separate from overall health. It affects how we think, how we feel, how we handle stress, how we build relationships, and how we make decisions. It also plays a powerful role in substance use prevention.
For the Way Out West Coalition, Mental Health Awareness Month is not only about raising awareness. It is about strengthening families, schools, and communities so young people have the support, skills, and connection they need before challenges turn into crisis.
Mental health and substance use are deeply connected. When a young person is struggling with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, loneliness, or pressure from peers, substances can sometimes look like an escape. Alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, prescription medications, or other drugs may be used as a way to cope, numb, fit in, or feel in control. But what may begin as a coping strategy can quickly create more problems, especially for developing brains and bodies.
SAMHSA describes mental health and substance use disorders as common, treatable conditions that often occur together. In fact, SAMHSA’s 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that about 21.2 million adults had both a mental illness and a substance use disorder. (SAMHSA) For youth, the connection is also clear: mental health challenges can increase the likelihood of substance use, and substance use can worsen mental health symptoms over time. (CDC)
That is why prevention cannot only focus on telling young people what not to do. Prevention must also focus on what we build around them.
We build connection.
We build resilience.
We build healthy coping skills.
We build safe and supportive environments.
We build protective factors.
What Are Risk and Protective Factors?
In prevention, we often talk about risk factors and protective factors.
Risk factors are conditions or experiences that may increase the likelihood of substance use, mental health struggles, violence, school disconnection, or other negative outcomes. Protective factors are the strengths, supports, relationships, and skills that help reduce those risks.
Risk factors do not guarantee a young person will struggle. Protective factors do not mean life will be easy. But they matter. They can change the direction of a young person’s story.
The CDC identifies youth substance use risk factors such as family history of substance use, poor parental monitoring, parental substance use, association with peers who use substances, lack of school connectedness, low academic achievement, childhood sexual abuse, and mental health issues. (CDC) These are not just “bad choices” showing up out of nowhere. They are often connected to stress, pain, environment, access, pressure, and unmet needs.
That is why prevention has to be bigger than a warning. It has to be a strategy.
The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences
One important part of that strategy is understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences, often called ACEs.
ACEs are potentially traumatic events that happen during childhood, from birth to age 17. They can include experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessing violence in the home or community; or growing up in a household where there is substance use, mental illness, instability, or a lack of safety and bonding. (CDC)
ACEs can affect how young people see themselves, how they trust others, how they respond to stress, and how they make decisions. When a child grows up in an environment where their brain and body are constantly on alert, survival can become the priority. That can make it harder to focus in school, manage emotions, ask for help, or think through long-term consequences.
The CDC notes that ACEs can have a major impact on lifelong health and opportunity. ACEs are also linked to mental illness and substance misuse later in life. (CDC)
But this is the part we cannot miss: ACEs are not destiny.
A young person’s past may help explain some of their pain, but it does not have to define their future. With the right supports, relationships, skills, and opportunities, healing is possible. Resilience can be built. Cycles can be interrupted.
That is where families, schools, coalitions, faith communities, businesses, law enforcement, behavioral health providers, youth leaders, and caring adults all have a role to play.
Building Protective Factors That Matter
Protective factors are not complicated in theory, but they require intentional effort. They are often built through everyday actions that help young people feel seen, supported, capable, and connected.
One of the strongest protective factors is connection. Young people need caring adults who know their names, notice when something is off, listen without immediately judging, and create space for honest conversations. A strong relationship with even one trusted adult can make a difference.
School connectedness also matters. When students feel like they belong at school, when they believe adults care about them, and when they have opportunities to be part of something positive, they are more likely to make healthy choices. This is one reason youth leadership programs are so powerful. They do not just give students information; they give them purpose.
Purpose is prevention.
When young people are invited to lead, speak, serve, solve problems, and create positive change, they begin to see themselves differently. They are not just students sitting through another presentation. They become messengers. They become role models. They become part of the solution. This is the foundation for programs like Youth4Youth.
Other protective factors include strong family communication, clear expectations around substance use, healthy peer relationships, problem-solving skills, emotional regulation, positive coping strategies, access to mental health support, safe neighborhoods, involvement in sports or activities, and opportunities to contribute to the community.
These are not small things. They are the foundation of prevention.
Reducing Risk Factors Before Crisis Happens
Reducing risk factors means looking honestly at what young people are facing.
It means recognizing that stress is real. Social pressure is real. Family challenges are real. Trauma is real. Easy access to substances is real. Social media influence is real. Loneliness is real.
When we ignore these realities, we miss the chance to intervene early.
Reducing risk can look like parents setting clear boundaries and monitoring where youth are, who they are with, and what they are doing online. It can look like schools building a climate where students feel safe reporting concerns. It can look like communities limiting youth access to alcohol, nicotine, and other substances. It can look like coaches, teachers, and youth workers being trained to recognize warning signs.
It can also look like changing how we respond when a young person is struggling.
Instead of asking, “What is wrong with this kid?” we can ask, “What happened, what are they carrying, and what support do they need?”
That question does not excuse harmful behavior. It helps us respond in a way that is more likely to create change.
A trauma-informed approach recognizes that behavior is often communication. A student who is angry, withdrawn, distracted, defiant, or constantly seeking attention may be showing signs of stress they do not yet know how to explain. When adults respond only with punishment, we may miss the need underneath the behavior. But when we combine accountability with support, we create a better chance for growth.
Healthy Coping Skills Are Prevention
One of the most practical things we can do for mental health and substance use prevention is help young people build healthy coping skills before they need them.
Coping skills are not just “take a deep breath” slogans. They are tools that help a young person handle pressure, disappointment, grief, conflict, boredom, anxiety, and stress without turning to substances or destructive choices.
Healthy coping can include physical activity, music, journaling, talking with a trusted adult, spending time outdoors, prayer or mindfulness, taking a break from screens, getting enough sleep, creating routines, practicing gratitude, or learning how to name emotions instead of burying them.
It also includes refusal skills. Young people need to practice how to say no, how to leave a risky situation, how to support a friend, and how to ask for help without feeling weak. These skills are easier to use when they have been practiced before the pressure arrives.
Prevention works best when it is proactive, not reactive.
What Families Can Do
Families are one of the most important protective factors in a young person’s life. You do not have to be perfect to make a difference. Consistency matters more than perfection.
Start with conversations. Ask questions that invite more than one-word answers. Listen more than you lecture. Talk openly about stress, mental health, peer pressure, substance use, and healthy choices. Make it normal to talk about hard things.
Set clear expectations. Youth need to know where their family stands on alcohol, vaping, marijuana, pills, and other substances. Clear boundaries are not about control; they are about protection.
Pay attention to changes. Withdrawal from friends, major mood shifts, changes in sleep, loss of interest, falling grades, secrecy, or sudden changes in peer groups can be signs that a young person may need support.
And most importantly, remind them often: you are loved, you matter, and you are not alone.
What Schools and Communities Can Do
Schools and communities can strengthen prevention by creating environments where young people feel connected, supported, and empowered.
That means investing in youth leadership, mentoring, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, mental health awareness, peer-to-peer prevention, and family engagement. It means giving students a voice in identifying the issues they see on campus and helping them create solutions.
It also means making sure adults are connected to one another. Prevention is strongest when schools, families, law enforcement, behavioral health providers, faith leaders, businesses, and community organizations are not working in silos.
No single program can solve every problem. But a connected community can create layers of protection around young people.
Hope Is a Prevention Strategy
Mental Health Awareness Month is a reminder that awareness is only the beginning. The goal is not just to talk about mental health. The goal is to create communities where people feel safe enough to ask for help, supported enough to heal, and connected enough to keep going.
Mental health and substance use prevention are not separate conversations. They are connected because people are connected. A young person’s choices are influenced by their stress, their relationships, their environment, their sense of belonging, their coping skills, and their hope for the future.
When we reduce risk factors and strengthen protective factors, we do more than prevent substance use. We help young people build lives they do not feel the need to escape from.
That is the work of prevention.
That is the work of community.
And that is the work of the Way Out West Coalition: coming together to build safer, healthier, stronger, and more connected communities where every young person has the opportunity to thrive.