P3.201: Tracking Legislative Priorities: A Scoping Review of Youth Mental Health Policy in California from 2015 - 2016 to 2023 - 2024

Background: In 2021, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a warning of the growing youth mental health crisis in the United States. Given that California leads in implementing innovative policies that serve one of the most diverse populations in the U.S., the state was selected as the focus of this analysis. Despite this, California ranked 48th in 2018 for youth mental health services according to the Commonwealth Fund. By 2024, the state had risen to 17th place in Mental Health America’s mental health ranking. Analyzing youth mental health in California’s legislative dockets offers insight into how policy narratives align with statewide improvement in youth mental health indicators and broader national priorities.

Project Description: This mixed-method advocacy project examines youth mental health legislation introduced in the California State Legislature across five cycles, from 2015–2016 to 2023–2024. Using the LegiScan API, we filtered bills containing youth-related keywords (e.g., pupil) in their titles and mental health-related terms (e.g., mental, substance) in their texts.

Selected bills were then grouped into seven youth mental health categories based on public health frameworks from the CDC, WHO, and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Emotional Disorders, Behavioral Disorders, Eating Disorders, Psychosis, Suicide and Self-Harm, Risk-Taking Behaviors, and Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences.

While youth-focused bills have remained relatively consistent over time, between 12.0% and 13.2% of all introduced legislation, bills combining youth and mental health topics rose from 4.29% in 2015–2016 to 5.28% in 2023–2024, suggesting mental health is becoming a more central legislative focus in California.

Discussion: This study presents the first known systematic analysis of mental health-related language in introduced California legislation, offering a lens into how policymakers prioritize youth mental health over time. Across cycles, risk-related language—such as substance use and alcohol—dominates, appearing in 39.9% of all unique issue mentions. Mentions of emotional health—including depression and anxiety—have become increasingly prominent in California legislation with these terms appearing in 27.7% of all category mentions in 2021 and remaining at 20.0% in 2023. While categories are not mutually exclusive and bills may address multiple issues, this surge points to a growing legislative recognition of youth emotional well-being. In contrast, psychosis (0.494%), behavioral disorders (1.81%), eating disorders (2.80%), and adverse childhood experiences (7.74%) remain consistently underrepresented, suggesting persistent gaps in policy attention.

Conclusion: We are expanding the analysis to assess bill scope (e.g., Education Code, Health & Safety Code) to identify which systems are being targeted. Next, we plan to evaluate whether these bills passed, and examine whether they had measurable impacts on youth outcomes using longitudinal cohort studies.

This project seeks to set a precedent for structured policy tracking across legislative cycles. By building a data-driven approach to advocacy, we hope to bridge gaps between medical and political spheres.