We keep being told youth mental health is in crisis.
On that, everyone agrees. The question is whether we’re looking at the right evidence when we decide what to do next.
Recently, two major youth mental health reports laid out a broad picture of what’s driving distress for young people aged 16 to 25.
Poverty, inequality, school pressure, discrimination, social media, lack of belonging. All of that is real. And yes, our own Gumboot Friday data lines up with those headlines.
Anxiety and depression sit at the centre of what young people are struggling with.
But here is the problem. Those reports describe why things are going wrong. They do not show what that distress looks like in the kids who are already turning up asking for help.
Gumboot Friday now holds real-time service data from young people aged five to 25 who have actively sought counselling. That data tells a much sharper and more uncomfortable story.
First, the crisis starts far earlier than we like to admit. Anxiety, anger and bullying are already showing up in primary school.
By 11 and 12 there is a clear lift. By 13 to 15 anxiety, depression and self-esteem problems spike hard and stay high into the late teens.
Starting the conversation at 16 means we’re arriving after the fire is already well under way.
Second, these kids are not dealing with one neat issue at a time. The average young person coming to us presents with more than four overlapping problems.
Anxiety sits alongside depression, stress, low self-worth and often trauma or sexual abuse.
This is complexity as the norm, not the exception. Any system built around short fixes and single-issue responses is destined to fail.
Third, the harm is not evenly spread. Girls and young women carry the bulk of anxiety, depression, body image issues and sexual abuse.
Non-binary young people present with the highest issue load of all. Māori rangatahi are disproportionately showing up with trauma and sexual abuse, not just general distress.
These are not abstract inequities. They’re specific patterns of harm playing out at specific ages.
If we want to be serious about prevention, the data is already telling us where to act. Early intervention in primary and intermediate years.
Trauma-informed support for teenage girls and Māori youth. Queer-affirming services for non-binary young people. Funding models that reflect complexity rather than pretending one problem equals one solution.
The big picture reports explain why the fire started. Our data shows who is burning, how badly, and how early.
If we keep ignoring that, we’re choosing to mop up instead of preventing the damage in the first place.
