SMU launches Youth Mental Health Research and Innovation Initiative

SMU has launched a new initiative to bring together researchers, students, young people and community partners to develop innovative approaches to improving youth mental health across Dallas-Fort Worth.

The Youth Mental Health Research and Innovation Initiative will begin with a year focused on building partnerships and establishing research priorities under Neely Myers, interim faculty director and a psychological anthropologist at SMU. Myers, who directs the university’s Mental Health Innovation Lab, will work with campus leadership, faculty and students alongside Dallas-Fort Worth community organizations and industry partners to design a launchpad for ideas that reach young people where they are.

“If we were forming this initiative 10 years ago, we would be looking at social media,” Myers said. “Forming it today, we’re looking at AI. Who knows what we’re going to be looking at 10 years from now? This effort keeps us bringing in fresh ideas, perspectives and resources to address problems as they emerge.”

Dallas already has strong organizations working on youth mental health. The initiative is designed to extend and strengthen that work rather than duplicate it, offering a neutral meeting ground where community knowledge meets faculty expertise spanning anthropology, psychology, education, education policy, law, data science, ethics, communication, engineering, business and the arts.

“Youth mental health is an ever-increasing problem that matters critically for the future of our society,” said Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah, the Elisabeth Martin Armstrong Dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, where the initiative will be based. “It will take much coordinated and consistent effort, across disciplines, to begin to address the problem. Through this initiative, Dedman College and SMU are planting seeds that will lead the way.”

A family’s experience with youth mental health

Myers’ younger brother had a serious mental health condition as a child and his struggles continued into adulthood. She watched him move through a system that did not have the resources needed. Myers has spent more than two decades striving to understand what current mental health care systems lack and how they can be improved to promote wellness and recovery, even from the most serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

Her recent research examines what she calls the perilous and promising relationship between young people and conversational AI. A chatbot gives young people an unlimited opportunity to talk through a worry, rehearse difficult conversations, or learn about themselves and others. Chatbots are confident, always available, and carry little risk of embarrassment or of burdening a friend. Her research asks how those exchanges shape young people’s social and moral decisions, and what impact this will have on them as they become adults. 

What is the SMU Youth Mental Health Research and Innovation Initiative?

A cross-university effort to connect SMU’s research, educational and innovation resources with young people, families and community organizations working to improve youth mental health across Dallas-Fort Worth.

“Governments can’t do everything and clinicians can’t do everything. There’s an awful lot to do in between,” Myers said. “I want this Initiative to give young people tools to develop new ways to support their generation’s mental health. We plan to bring them together with researchers, community organizations, and industry partners to build and test ideas that come from young people themselves.”

Because young people are close to these challenges, the Initiative treats them as collaborators rather than subjects. Plans call for structures that let youth shape research questions, interpret findings and inform the tools built in response. SMU students will have parallel opportunities, including mentored research with faculty, community-based learning, internships with nonprofit and industry partners, and innovation projects.

The Initiative also plans to coordinate seminars, workshops, youth forums and cross-sector gatherings to bring together researchers, practitioners, educators, young people, families, policy experts, funders and technology leaders who rarely share a room.

Why is youth mental health an urgent research priority now?

Young people are navigating social isolation, unequal access to care, educational pressure, differences in family and culture, and fast-moving technologies including social media and conversational artificial intelligence. At the same time, there are powerful new tools to revolutionize mental health care by improving coordination — across families, friends and providers, as well as educational, legal and medical systems — to streamline support. There is also mounting evidence that engagement with families, schools and the arts can make a difference.

What are the next steps for the Initiative?

Priorities this year include listening to young people and community partners, mapping existing strengths across SMU, amplifying existing interdisciplinary and community-engaged projects, and building an advisory structure.

Where can I get more information?

Email Neely Myers, interim faculty director.