From Crisis to Hope: Changing the Mental Health Landscape for Santa Barbara Youth

When Rachael Steidl’s daughter started struggling with depression and anxiety in 9th grade, her good grades, sports, charm, and active social life masked the severity of her condition. Teachers overlooked her symptoms, and a therapist assured the parents she was “fine,” a typical teenager. Over the next two years, her mental health declined further.

“Our inability to find local services to support her was truly terrifying,” Steidl recalls. “I had a pit in my stomach every day and felt that if we didn’t get her help, we were going to lose our daughter.” 

Steidl’s experience led her to create YouthWell, a Santa Barbara County nonprofit dedicated to closing gaps and removing barriers to services, and providing tools and education to empower youth and families. In 2016, Steidl began convening a Collaborative of community stakeholders, schools, and providers to focus on early intervention and work together to build stronger systems that connect students to services before they are in crisis.

“We need to listen to youth and parents and learn from their experiences,” Steidl says. “YouthWell works with 55 students, from high schools throughout our county, who serve on our Youth Advocacy Board. They share the challenges they see on their campuses and in the community and advocate for change.”

The nonprofit launched the only online Youth and Family Mental Health and Wellness Resource Directory in English and Spanish that centralizes 200 organizations in Santa Barbara County, allowing families to search for a range of services for youth ages 5-25. 

In addition, YouthWell provides free support groups so parents, teachers, and teens can learn healthy coping strategies for managing stress. They offer wellness workshops and a Mental Health First Aid certification course that teaches family and friends to recognize and respond to mental health and substance abuse challenges.

YouthWell recently added their Family Care Coordination center and Wellness Navigator Program, which connects families to mental health resources through “warm handoffs” ensuring they access the services they need. Often when a child is struggling, it affects siblings and parents which is why Navigators want to support each family’s unique situation.

“The feedback we hear most is, ‘Thank you for listening, taking the time to hear our story, and not minimizing our concerns,’” Steidl says.

Steidl knows firsthand what it’s like to feel helpless when you can’t find support locally. After two years of watching her daughter’s mental health decline, the family made the difficult decision to send her to a wilderness program and a therapeutic boarding school out of state, neither of which was covered by insurance.

These programs made a difference. Today, at 25, after finishing high school and completing her master’s degree, her daughter is following her passion working for an international human rights organization.

“It was a painful decision to make but I believe it saved her life,” Steidl says. “I want to change the narrative for other families by connecting them to support early. They should never be told their issue is not ‘bad enough.’ If we were able to get her services early, it would have reduced the emotional and financial toll on our family and we would not have missed out on almost a year of her life.”