In many parts of the world, young people turn to each other first when they are struggling. Not to professionals, but to friends, siblings, or trusted peers. This reality, however, is rarely reflected in mental health literacy programs. Most focus on symptoms, safety protocols, and referrals. They often rely on scripted content that teaches young people what to repeat, rather than how to provide authentic support.

In one of my university classes, I heard a student who had reached out for help say the system “just feels so robotic.” I knew what they meant. After five years of volunteering at a youth distress centre, I’ve been trained to follow the right steps: how to open a chat, de-escalate a crisis, and get someone to safety in about 45 minutes. That’s what helplines are built to do, and for good reason. But over time, I found myself having the same conversation with the same people again and again. It started to feel mechanical, like care had become a checklist. It worked in the short term, but nothing really shifted. The most powerful conversations I’ve had were never about completing a process. They were about being real, in a way that created trust and space. And that’s something current systems rarely teach.

When I was 12, one of my closest friends was suicidal. I stayed up late for days, just in case they needed me in the middle of the night. Everyone in our friend group was struggling in some way, and we felt an unspoken pressure to keep each other alive. We had no idea what we were doing, but we also didn’t trust the adults around us to know how to help. That kind of story is not rare.

This talk is not a critique of professionals or helplines. It is a call to expand the role of youth peer support. Many of us are already holding each other up. What we lack are the tools, language, and systems to do it safely and sustainably. I will share some practices and ideas I have seen work. What if mental health literacy included emotional presence, cultural nuance, and relational learning? What if digital tools supported nonlinear, intuitive conversations with checklists and scripts as supports, not the main feature?

We need to move beyond awareness into prevention. Young people are not trying to replace professionals. We are asking to be trusted as part of the solution. The question is not whether this is possible; it is whether you believe youth are also capable of constructive, valuable care.