National Adolescent Health Month™ (NAHM™) 2023

A Message from Admiral Rachel L. Levine

HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel L. Levine invites everyone to celebrate NAHM and to "provide the environments and supports that help young people grow and thrive in a healthy way."

HHS Statements for NAHM 2023

To mark the start of May and National Adolescent Health Month, Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs and Director of the Office of Adolescent Health Jessica Marcella released the following statements.

Week 1, May 1, 2023

Expand sexual and reproductive health information and services

Better information and improved access to services will help adolescents—with the support of their parents and caregivers—make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and well-being. Parents and caregivers can help young people navigate the health care system when they transition from pediatric to adult health care.

Youth-serving professionals and health care providers also play an important role in connecting young people with sexual and reproductive health services and giving them accurate information. Youth-serving professionals help adolescents build life skills and set goals for healthy futures. Health care providers can make preventive services more accessible and culturally relevant to young people across the country. Health care providers can also ensure opportunities for confidential, one-on-one conversations and encourage youth to involve their parents or caregivers while also respecting their privacy.

Week 2, May 8, 2023

Promote self-care to support mental health

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of addressing mental health for today's young people. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021 shows that poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors are increasing among 9^th through 12^th grade students. Community organizations, governments, families and caregivers, employers, and young people can all be part of the solution to improve youth mental health.

One way adults can support mental health is by sharing and facilitating self-care practices that young people can use in their daily lives to manage stress, regulate emotions, sustain energy levels, and prevent or treat illnesses. Communities, schools, and youth-serving professionals can make safe spaces, share stress management and mindfulness strategies, and offer virtual or mobile locations for accessing mental health and other essential health services.

Week 3, May 15, 2023

Celebrate ways that communities support youth

Teachers, coaches, and school administrators can employ a positive youth development approach to engaging young people. Building on adolescents’ strengths, communities can support youth and promote positive outcomes. Programs that involve youth are proven to be more effective at engaging them and have a greater impact. Schools can provide health education, connect young people to services, and make school environments safer for learning and recreation.

This week of NAHM celebrates communities working to advance adolescent health and opportunities for youth. OPA is highlighting the accomplishments of grantees and partners that elevate youth voice and prioritize meaningful youth engagement, build on young people’s strengths and talents, improve access to services in various settings, and make services and supports more youth friendly. OPA’s grantees are designing and evaluating creative solutions for improving adolescent health.

Week 4, May 22, 2023

Equip adults to support adolescent health

The environment where adolescents live, go to school, work, and play impacts their health and well-being. Communities—including teachers, coaches, mentors, and other youth-serving professionals—support young people as they develop into healthy adults. Caring adults need reliable information and resources to support, advise, and care for young people.

All adults, whether they live with youth or not, have important roles to play in providing support to young people. Positive connections with adults can protect youth from many risk behaviors and negative health outcomes. These connections can also assist young people as they develop and transition to young adulthood. Beyond positive connections, adults also shape young people’s environments through the policies they support, the communities they build, and the systems they create.

OPA has sought input from youth participants and featured their artwork as part of OPA’s Youth Create! initiative to amplify youth voice. The Youth Create! galleries share young people’s responses, which ranged from original poems, essays, artwork, and videos.

Youth Listening Sessions (YLS) offer an opportunity to meaningfully engage youth, signal that their opinions are valuable, and incorporate their voices into program discovery, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Learn What it’s Like to be a young person today. OPA produced the “What It’s Like” video project to share adolescent perspectives on health from across the United States. What the entire What it's Like series on OPA's YouTube channel.