Colorado Teens Urge Next Governor to Fix Mental Health Pressure Cooker

Colorado’s next governor will inherit a mental health crisis that is killing kids, and the state’s top youth experts say the solution isn’t just more therapists — it’s fixing the pressure cooker these teens live in.

Swarali Dhamal, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate, knows the weight of that pressure. It started in middle school. It grew louder with every curated Instagram post and every class ranking. The message was simple: be perfect or fail.

“It’s kind of normalized in society where you have to be perfect or you have to accomplish something in life to be successful,” Dhamal said. “And that’s where a lot of my peers feel like mental health struggles arise from.”

She’s not wrong. That gravitational pull toward being the best is suffocating more than it’s helping. It’s driving a generation of Colorado students into a crisis that officials say demands immediate, funded action from the next administration.

The data tells a nuanced story. Suicide rates among kids aged 10 to 18 dropped in 2024 to their lowest point since 2007. There were 39 deaths by suicide in that age group last year. That’s a sharp dip from the peak of 87 deaths in 2020. The state still outpaces the national average, but the trend is moving.

Dr. K. Ron-Li Liaw, director of the child and adolescent mental health division at Children’s Hospital Colorado, says we can’t afford to wait.

“If we don’t address this and the next governor does not address this in an appropriate, prioritized, resourced way with leadership and accountability at the very top of our state, we will lose this generation,” Liaw said.

Her warning is stark. These kids have already survived COVID. They’ve weathered an economic downturn. They’ve seen more conflict than most adults. Liaw argues that trusted adults in leadership need to turn this around now.

Dhamal and other teens are offering specific ideas for the next governor. They want policy plans on Day 1 that prioritize access to support. They want accountability. They want the state to stop treating mental health as an afterthought and start treating it as the emergency it is.

The pressure to perform is everywhere. Social media feeds amplify it. School hallways reinforce it. The result is a student body that is exhausted, anxious, and often alone.

“The short version,” as Dhamal sees it, is that the current system pushes too hard and supports too little. If the next governor doesn’t shift resources to match that reality, the gains in suicide prevention could vanish.

Liaw notes that the state has seen improvements in some areas but dramatic worsens in others. The gap between policy and practice remains wide. Teens are calling for a top-down approach. They want leadership that doesn’t just talk about mental health but funds it, measures it, and owns the results.

The numbers show progress. The voices of kids like Dhamal show urgency. The question is whether the next governor will listen.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. The Colorado Crisis Line is 1-844-493-8255.