x
Breaking News
More () »

UT football star Vince Young speaks at Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

Young was the keynote speaker for Children's Mental Health Awareness day, joining a few hundred kids and adults at the event.

AUSTIN — Former NFL and Longhorn football stand out, Vince Young, stepped into the public spotlight at the State Capitol on Saturday for a good cause.

Young was the keynote speaker for Children's Mental Health Awareness day, joining a few hundred kids and adults at the event.

Young helped raise awareness about the lack of mental illness help children actually receive. One in five youth between the ages 13 through 18 experience mental health issues, but less than 20 percent actually get the help they need.

Saturday's event was a step toward hopefully changing that.

Young shared his own experience with the crowd.

"Everybody remembers the Rose Bowl, but I was a kid too and I went through a lot from my community in Houston. Bullying, the gangs, a lot of stuff that went on in my community," Young said.

Other speakers included Christy Kuehn with the Travis County Health and Human Services.

"We're telling the kiddos that mental health is treatable. It is something you can recover from, you can be resilient, we share with them successful people who have had mental health challenges," said Kuehn.

Travis County Sheriff, Sally Hernandez, also spoke to the crowd.

"Mental health issues should be viewed as a public health issue just like diabetes, heart disease, any of those. We need to be talking about it and we need to be looking for treatment and we need to be looking for resources and a plan," Hernandez said.

To wrap up the event, everyone participated in an artificial butterfly release.

Before You Leave, Check This Out