Across the nation, young adults living in poverty experience serious threats to their mental health. More than one in five young adults ages 18-25 living in poverty report serious psychological distress within the past year. To inform efforts to improve public policies, CLASP conducted an in-depth scan and analysis of how selected states and localities are addressing young adult mental health. Our findings, analysis, and recommendations are contained in this three-part brief series: Policy for Transformed Lives. 

This brief, State and Local Efforts to Support Young Adult Mental Health, is the first of the three-part Policy for Transformed Lives series and it summarizes our methodology, provides an overview of the policy context in four states and three localities we examined, and profiles innovative policy and practice efforts in each place.

The other parts of the Policy for Transformed Lives series are: 

Policy for Transformed Lives: Executive Summary; 

Barriers to Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Young Adults; and 

State Opportunities for Young Adult Mental Health Policy and Systems Change