ADAA Conference in Las Vegas Focuses on Youth Mental Health Crisis, Prevention & Treatment Youth Mental Health

Youth Mental Health: Treatments that Work and Opportunities for Prevention

LAS VEGAS, NV, UNITED STATES, February 25, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- It’s a crucial topic at a crucial time for a crucial population. Youth mental health is in crisis and The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) is determined to make an impact on widespread access, care, treatment, and prevention when it comes to today’s youth and their mental health needs. At its annual conference at the Westgate Resort & Casino in Las Vegas this year (April 3-5, 2025), ADAA will bring together eminent clinicians, researchers, young professionals, and other experts in the field of youth mental health. With an alarming rise in depression, especially among adolescent girls, a significant uptick in suicidality, and higher levels of anxiety and depression in youth, not just in the United States but all over the world, this year’s conference, Youth Mental Health: Treatments that Work and Opportunities for Prevention, aims to find solutions to youth mental health issues that have gone on far too long and far too wide.

This year’s Conference Co-Chairs, youth mental health professionals Kate Fitzgerald, MD, and Erika Forbes, PhD, understand the challenges of treating young people. They highlight the importance of early intervention, prevention, improving services, better access to care, and more targeted individual treatment while incorporating family dynamics, but at the same time express how rewarding it is to work with youth.
“It’s exciting to study and focus on mental health treatments for young people,” said Dr. Forbes. “They know it’s important and don’t find it as stigmatizing so they are more likely to ask for help and seek treatment. We have a great opportunity with young people now to address their challenges.”

ADAA’s conference offers a unique opportunity for clinicians and researchers to come together for three days to discuss cutting-edge research, evidence-based strategies, and practical approaches to helping more youth, as well as presenting their work, ideas, and impact through lectures, round-tables, posters, and numerous networking sessions. According to Dr. Fitzgerald, ADAA’s conference invites researchers and clinicians to partner in a way in which researchers obtain new ideas to incorporate into their work while clinicians learn new techniques to bring to working with their clients. “Clinicians and researchers alike can gain more confidence in being comfortable in what they don’t know and what they need to know and how to go about doing that.”

From digital and other technologies to groundbreaking new psychotherapies, neurostimulation, medications, and more rapidly acting treatments, the mental health profession has seen encouraging advancements with enormous promise. But huge unknowns and obstacles still exist for adult and youth populations alike. ADAA’s conference will highlight what is being done in the field of youth mental health to continue these breathtaking innovations while developing and improving on ways to break down access and treatment barriers, and working to end stigma for all suffering from mental illness.

This year’s conference will feature guest speakers renowned in the field of youth mental health, working on innovative and compelling advances and breakthroughs for our young people. ADAA is excited to announce some of our invited speakers. ADAA’s Opening Keynote Speaker is Candice Odgers, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Odgers will open the conference on Thursday, April 3rd with her keynote address Social Media and its Benefits/Dangers for Young People. Dr. Odgers and her team have worked to capture the daily lives and mental health of adolescents using social media. She co-directs the Child & Brain Development Program at CIFAR and is the author of over 100 scientific publications. Along with Dr. Odgers, ADAA welcomes this year’s Ross Lecturer Jessica L. Schleider, PhD, with her presentation entitled Single-Session Interventions as a Youth Mental Health Moonshot. The Director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health and Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences, Pediatrics, and Psychology at Northwestern University will present the special lecture that honors the memory of ADAA’s founder Jerilyn Ross. At the invitation of current ADAA President Helen Blair-Simpson, MD, PhD, Jennifer Herren, PhD, and Sapana Patel, PhD, and Dr. Simpson will give the President’s Keynote with their presentation entitled Bringing Research to Practice to Transforming Outcomes for Individuals with OCD.

Lise Bram
Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)
+1 240-485-1016
lbram@adaa.org
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ADAA 2025 Conference - Will You Be There?