Youth Integration in Mental Health: From Symbol to Structure 

By Vidhi Desai 

When I attended the 2025 ECOSOC Youth Forum, I was struck by how often youth are framed as future leaders, when, in fact, we’re already leading. Across research, advocacy, and policy, young people are actively shaping the mental health systems we want to see. What we need now is for institutions to recognize and support that leadership. 

The defining challenge of our time is whether we can build systems that reflect not just the needs of the present, but the promise of the future. I’ve come to believe that no framework, whether in research, funding, or policy, can be truly forward-looking if it excludes the people it’s meant to serve. Integrating youth into these systems isn’t a symbolic gesture, it’s a strategic necessity. 

At ECOSOC, I heard youth from around the world call for deeper, more intentional inclusion throughout the research-to-policy pipeline. Like many of them, I want to see young people engaged not as passive stakeholders, but as collaborators, from shaping research questions and setting funding priorities to interpreting data and helping turn evidence into action. Too often, we are the subjects of research and policy without being part of the conversation. 

What stood out most to me was the clarity and urgency with which youth articulated our role, not just in offering feedback, but in shaping systems from the inside out. We’re not looking for token representation. We’re asking to be embedded across the process, from initial design to real-world application. This is especially critical in mental health, where lived experience offers insights that data alone cannot capture. 

One of the most powerful roles I see youth playing is in scientific communication. We are helping translate complex ideas into real, relatable narratives, through lived experience, digital platforms, and creative storytelling. In an era of misinformation and growing distrust in institutions, we bring new ways to connect research with communities. We’re not just amplifying findings; we’re making them meaningful and accessible. This work is essential to building systems that people can actually understand, trust, and use. 

This focus on translation and systems change was also front and center at the 2024 Igniting Hope Forum hosted by Brain Canada, where I joined other youth, researchers, and advocates to reimagine the future of mental health. A clear theme emerged: when youth are involved, the research is more relevant, the communication is stronger, and the solutions are more grounded. 

My experience at ECOSOC affirmed what I’ve seen in Canada: youth are already acting as connectors, communicators, and co-creators. We’re helping close the gap between research and lived experience, between institutions and the communities they serve. We’re not asking for a seat at the table, we’re building new tables. 

The opportunity now, for funders, researchers, and system leaders, is to formalize our involvement. That means embedding youth in decision-making structures, resourcing our roles in knowledge translation, and supporting our contributions as core, not peripheral, to systems change. 

This moment isn’t about making space for youth. It’s about building with us, on the foundation we’ve already helped create. The next phase of mental health innovation will depend on it. 

Vidhi Desai is a recognized mental health advocate and panelist who contributes to several youth mental health and policy initiatives through her illustrations. She is the illustrator of several books and regularly does graphic work for non-profit organizations who serve to increase mental health awareness in Canada. Outside of these commitments, she also serves as the EDI Director for her faculty at the University of Calgary and the Director of Research for the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health. Vidhi also regularly participates as a panelist for pan-Canadian and global organizations working towards achieving youth partnership in health solutions. Her efforts for working towards SDG 3 (good health and well-being) have been recognized by the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation.