This post was updated Oct. 13 at 10:19 p.m.
The UCLA psychology department will launch a new youth behavioral health minor this winter and will welcome a cohort of more than 100 students.
The department created the minor in response to a shortage of trained mental health workers who can support young people, said Alayna Park, a psychology lecturer. Applications for the program are open until Friday.
Students in the minor will take classes on top of pursuing a yearlong internship at community behavioral health sites across Southern California, preparing them to work with children and families, according to the psychology department’s website.
“This minor is very, very, very overdue,” Park said. “We’ve had a youth mental health crisis for decades that just keeps getting worse and worse.”
Forty percent of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2023, significantly higher than a decade earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Thirty-seven percent of college students reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms, and 32% reported moderate to severe anxiety, according to the 2024-25 Healthy Minds Study.
“Part of that youth mental health crisis is that we have an extreme shortage of mental health professionals who can help meet the needs of our youth,” Park said.
To be eligible for the minor, students must be pre-majors or majors in psychology, psychobiology or cognitive science and have an overall grade-point-average of 3.0 or higher, according to the department’s website. Applicants must have also completed Psychology 10: “Introductory Psychology” and Psychology 127C: “Clinical Psychological Science: Developmental Perspectives” with a grade of C or better and be expected to graduate in spring 2028 or later.
The minor consists of two upper-division courses on youth behavioral intervention and foundations, with an additional one being completed prior to or while applying to the minor. Students will spend about 10 hours per week at their internship and attend a weekly seminar.
Bruce Chorpita, a professor of psychology and the program chair, led the creation of the minor to prepare psychology students to enter different areas of the mental health field.
Students who complete the minor will earn the Certified Wellness Coach II credential, allowing them to work with families and treatment teams at public schools and clinics, Chorpita said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom created the Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health in 2022, establishing that Certified Wellness Coach roles do not require a graduate degree.
Sophia Moriel, an undergraduate advisor for the youth behavioral health minor, said many psychology students worry that their degree is not applicable in the job market. While working in mental health often takes years of schooling, the minor offers a direct pipeline into the field right after earning a bachelor’s degree, she added.
The psychology department consulted about 40 provider agencies and 80 school districts while building the minor curriculum, Chorpita said.
The first test cohort of 36 students completed pilot courses last year and are now completing internships at local schools and clinics, Park said. The goal, he added, is to match students with communities they are familiar with.
“The dream is to have somebody who’s like, ‘Oh, this is the neighborhood I grew up in, and now I’m working in the neighborhood,’” Chorpita said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, is connect people back to the communities they care about, they came from.”
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