James Donaldson on Mental Health - Loneliness, suicide and the crisis facing young men

Gavin Newsom’s executive order addressing the mental health crisis among young men and boys speaks to something many of us see every day, even if we don’t always say it out loud.

Too many young men are struggling with isolation, anxiety and a loss of purpose and those struggles often remain hidden behind silence.

The data explains why this matters.

In California, men ages 15 to 44 die by suicide at three to four times the rate of women, making suicide one of the leading causes of death for young men.

Annually, about 3,300 men kill themselves a year in California compared to approximately 1,000 women.

Firearms account for a significant share of those deaths.

At the same time, men are far less likely to seek mental health care, often because stigma and outdated expectations tell them they should handle problems on their own.

In San Mateo County, we recognized this reality early.

In January 2024, we became the first county in the nation to formally declare loneliness a public health crisis, because we could see how disconnection was showing up in emergency rooms, classrooms, workplaces and homes.

Before loneliness became part of a broader national conversation during the COVID pandemic, our county chose to name it and invest in solutions.