hi all! welcome back to our podcast and a special episode with a member of Washington State's Legislative Youth Advisory Board! in this episode, we dive into how youth can begin their journey with advocacy, how to get involved in their schools, and also talking about personal experience with youth depression and how one can help themselves navigate through that hardship.

as promised, here is some brief information about current (and dead) bills in WA state regarding youth mental health:

there were a couple of bills this past session focused on improving support for youth, especially in schools. one of them was hb 1663 (and its partner bill sb 5369), which wanted to expand the role of school social workers and get more mental health interns and associates into schools, especially in communities that need it most. sadly, that bill didn’t move forward this session. another one was hb 2038 (and sb 5799), which proposed creating a youth behavioral health fund by taxing big social media companies. the idea was to use that money to boost mental health services for youth across the state. that bill also didn’t pass this time, but it shows that there’s growing attention on youth mental health in the capitol.

source: washington state legislature website at leg.wa.gov