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Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People
Resilience at Every Age: Why Mental Health Awareness Can't Stop at Childhood
Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People
Dr. Wanda Boone, Health and Safety Chair
Mental health doesn't follow a single script, and neither should the way we talk about it. A teenager navigating trauma at school, a young adult carrying that same history into a first job, a parent quietly burning out, a senior grieving alone: each is living a different chapter of the same story. Understanding mental health across the lifespan, and at every level of a person's world, is how communities actually move the needle.
What ACEs and Trauma-Informed Care Actually Mean
Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are the foundational research behind almost everything we now know about trauma and long-term health. The landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente study that coined the term found that childhood abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction significantly raise the risk of poor health outcomes decades later [1]. More recent CDC data confirms just how common this is: 61 percent of adults report at least one ACE, and 16 percent report four or more [2]. The more ACEs a person accumulates, the higher their risk for depression, chronic disease, substance use, and even early death.
That's the science. Trauma-informed care is the practical response to it. Instead of asking “what's wrong with this person,” a trauma-informed approach asks “what happened to this person,” and it operates on six core principles: safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment and choice, and attention to cultural, historical, and gender context [3]. Crucially, ACEs don't stop mattering once someone turns eighteen. They shape how a person parents, works, ages, and copes for the rest of their life, which is exactly why this has to be a lifespan conversation, not just a childhood one.
Youth
Nationally, 42 percent of high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness [4], and disparities are sharpest among youth who face discrimination, instability, or trauma at home, each one a form of ACE exposure. Left unaddressed, these patterns don't resolve on their own; they follow young people into the next stage of life. Suicidal ideation was cited as a concern by over 40% of Black middle and high school students in Durham.
Tools: Youth Mental Health First Aid training for the adults around them (teachers, coaches, youth pastors) [5]; school-based mental health screening; peer support and mentoring programs; age-appropriate coping-skills curricula (mindfulness, emotional regulation, basic CBT skills); the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available by call, text, or chat [6]; and trauma-informed school discipline policies that respond to behavior as a symptom, not a character flaw.
The message is landing in youth-created spaces too. “Let Me,” an original song written and performed by teen artist Emani Hamer, speaks directly to the pressure so many young people feel to appear strong while struggling privately, urging listeners not to carry everything alone. That message feels especially timely: with persistent sadness and hopelessness still affecting so many teens nationally [4], music like this reaches young people in a register that a classroom lesson often can't. Listen here.
Young Adults
Somewhere between eighteen and twenty-five, the safety nets built for children (school counselors, pediatricians, family oversight) start to fall away, right as young people face some of life's biggest transitions: college, first jobs, first independence. An ACE doesn't expire at eighteen; a young adult who grew up around instability often enters this stage without the support systems to buffer new stress, and untreated struggles can harden into chronic conditions.
Tools: Campus and community counseling centers; the 988 Lifeline [6]; peer support networks and support groups; workplace or school Mental Health First Aid training; low-cost or sliding-scale therapy directories; and simple structural habits (sleep, routine, social connection) that are often the first things to erode under stress and the first things worth rebuilding.
Adults
For working-age adults, mental health is often invisible because it's buried under responsibility: caregiving for kids and aging parents at once, financial strain, and workplace pressure that rarely leaves room to ask for help. Adults with unresolved ACEs are also more likely to face chronic physical health conditions [1], which means mental and physical health support often need to happen together, not separately.
Tools: Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) through work; primary care depression screening (many providers now screen routinely, not just when asked); caregiver support groups and respite care programs; community mental health centers; telehealth therapy, which has made access dramatically easier; and trauma-informed workplace practices, like managers trained to recognize burnout and stress rather than just penalize its symptoms.
Seniors
Older adults face a mental health landscape shaped by loss, of spouses, independence, and social roles, and by isolation that deepens with each passing year and carries its own serious health risks [7]. Trauma doesn't stay quietly in the past; grief, illness, or major life transitions can reactivate experiences from decades earlier, and cognitive changes can make it harder to recognize or communicate distress.
Tools: Geriatric mental health screening as part of routine medical care; local Area Agencies on Aging, which coordinate services many families don't know exist [8]; senior center and “friendly visitor” programs to combat isolation; grief counseling; trauma-informed training for caregivers and home health aides; and telehealth options for those with mobility or transportation barriers.
One Framework, Every Age
None of these tools work in isolation. An individual can build coping skills, but without a trained adult or peer to notice distress (interpersonal), a community that offers real referral pathways instead of dead ends (community), and policy that funds training and protects access to care (policy), even the most resilient person runs out of road. That's true whether the person is fifteen or seventy-five.
What This Means for All of Us
Mental Health Awareness Month isn't about one age group, and it isn't about individual willpower. A teenager's untreated trauma can become a young adult's crisis, a working adult's burnout, and, without intervention, a senior's isolation. Every one of those points is a place where a trained adult, a connected community, or the right tool at the right time could change the outcome.
Sources
[2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).” Vital Signs.
[4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results.”
[5] National Council for Mental Wellbeing. “Youth Mental Health First Aid.”
[6] 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
[8] Administration for Community Living. “Area Agencies on Aging.”
Dr. Wanda Boone, Chair
Zion Tankard, Vice Chair
