In December 2019, a emergency room nurse from the local children’s hospital commented that in the previous 2 years, the number of emergency room visits they’d seen for adolescent suicidal attempts or suicidal ideations had tripled. A tripling of suicidal teens in 2 years. That comment was the driving force for the launch of Apricity.
After telling a group of teens about our plan to launch Apricity, one of them commented that this is a dumb idea, because today’s adolescents don’t want to be mentally healthy – anxiety and depression are cool. That comment solidified the need for a program like this, and it reinforced that we need to start early.
Our vision is to turn the tide of youth mental health by intervening early with robust resiliency measures to help children build a foundation for mental and emotional health that will sustain them through the challenges of adolescence and beyond.