Quick Take

A new executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom aims to tackle the mental health crisis disproportionately affecting boys and young men through education, workforce engagement and mentorship initiatives. Clinician Matt Merrill, who works with youth in Santa Cruz County, calls the move a meaningful first step.

Renaissance High School mental health clinician Matt Merrill is hopeful that a new state initiative will help address a mental health crisis among young men and boys that’s causing them to die from suicides and overdoses at far higher rates than young women and girls.  

Last Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order focused on the mental health crisis facing boys to help them find purpose through education, family and work, and to reduce suicide rates.

“The state is telling us, ‘Hey, we see that there’s a problem,’” Merrill said. “That’s the first step. And they’re taking action to address the problem.”

Renaissance High is a continuation school serving about 120 kids in Pajaro Valley Unified School District. Merrill works there five days a week and often coaches school sports teams including basketball and soccer. 

Across the state, nearly 80% of all suicides are men, and young men are about three times more likely to die by suicide than young women. In a news release, state officials said that a lack of mental health resources and gender stereotypes have contributed to a culture where men and boys feel they can’t seek support, which causes higher rates of isolation, lower workforce participation, drug use and crime.

In Santa Cruz County, the rates that men and boys die from suicide and overdose mirror those at the statewide level. From October 2022 to June 2025, out of 284 overdose deaths in the county, 79% were men. For that same time frame, 81% of the 16 children who died were boys and 79% of the total 116 suicide cases involved men or boys. 

To Merrill, there’s a “universal” mental health crisis for all young people and it’s important to understand the specific symptoms for all genders — boys, girls and nonbinary youth. Merrill, who has been a licensed mental health clinician at Renaissance High for six years, said some of the troubling behaviors that he sees among boys are extreme isolation, disappearing into the internet, drugs and alcohol and getting involved in gangs.

He said Newsom’s initiative is a good start toward addressing the challenges that tend to affect boys. 

The executive order directs the California Health and Human Services Agency to make recommendations to tackle the suicide crisis, and directs the Office of Service and Community Engagement and other agencies to find opportunities to promote the participation of men and boys in volunteer opportunities and in the workforce. Newsom’s order also asks the State Board of Education, California Department of Education and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to find opportunities to recruit more men as teachers and school counselors. 

Merrill sees a lack of mentors as a crucial part of the issue and he thinks it’s very important for boys to have role models. He said mentors provide a kind of acknowledgement that young men and boys need to feel noticed and valued, and like they have a future. 

“Young men need — or thrive with — older men’s validation,” he said. “They need mentors, coaches, teachers, counselors. They need people to look up to in real life, not just on the internet.”

He said mentoring and support doesn’t always have to look like one-on-one therapy. It can also be a teacher or staff member playing catch with a young man during a class break.

Merrill said youth in Santa Cruz County could become even more discouraged about the prospect of a successful future when they see how challenging it is for families to afford basic necessities, especially housing. For the third consecutive year, Santa Cruz County was ranked the most unaffordable rental market in the country. 

“It’s so hard to make it here,” he said. “Our wages are lower than neighboring counties. Our rent and mortgages are higher. Santa Cruz County is the most unaffordable county in the country.”

Because of those local affordability challenges, the executive order’s focus on jobs caught Merrill’s eye. He thinks if students have more opportunities to learn about different careers in school programs they can more easily imagine a career and get motivated. 

“We need more trades coming into our schools. If kids don’t see something, they don’t know it exists, right?” he said.

He noted that a lineman with Pacific Gas & Electric can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but many boys and young men don’t even realize that kind of career is an option for them. “You’ll never think about that, because you don’t know it’s even a thing,” he said.

The executive order emphasizes that the mental health crisis of young men and boys affects everyone, and that the efforts to address it also benefit everyone. 

“The progress that women have made is to be celebrated,” it reads, “and it is not a zero-sum question of continuing the important work to support equality and opportunity for women and girls while also addressing the challenges facing men and boys: doing so directly benefits society as a whole.” 

Note: Are you a parent, educator, mental health professional or concerned community member who wants to share more about boys’ mental health for a potential story? Email reporter Hillary Ojeda at hillary@lookoutlocal.com. 

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