Before a young person ever reaches a crisis line or a mobile team, they’ve likely already looked for help somewhere else. For many children and youth, crisis arrives alongside a digital world already full of mental health content, including TikTok creators, AI chatbots, and viral moments that shape how they understand their own distress. Combining science, warmth, and the latest data, Erin Walsh will explore how online influencers, commercial AI models, and digital help-seeking are shaping the way youth experience and communicate distress. Learn what this means for assessment, engagement, and responding to young people with digital habits in mind.
Learning objectives:
- Participants will be able to ask informed, nonjudgmental questions about a young person’s digital help-seeking history as a routine part of crisis assessment and engagement.
- Participants will be able to identify warning signs that AI chatbot use may have delayed, substituted for, or complicated a young person’s path to formal mental health support.
- Participants will be able to apply knowledge of differential susceptibility to tailor engagement.
- Participants communicate with young people and their families about online mental health content in ways that validate their experiences and strengthens trust in human support systems.
Bio:
Erin Walsh, M.A., is co-founder of Spark & Stitch Institute and author of It’s Their World: Teens, Screens, and the Science of Adolescence. She has worked with communities across the country who want to better understand child and adolescent development and cut through conflicting information about kids and technology. Her work has been featured in local publications across the country as well as The Washington Post, Star Tribune, Parents.com, and Minnesota Public Radio. In addition to writing for Psychology Today, she co-authored the 10th Anniversary Edition of the national bestseller Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen. Her signature down-to-earth approach and sense of humor helps professionals engage in complicated topics and leave feeling capable and motivated. She has consulted with schools, school districts, parent groups and other youth serving organizations throughout North America on issues related to digital media, mental health, and child and adolescent development.
Curriculum
- 1 Section
- 1 Lesson
- Lifetime
