When we talk about men’s mental health, we tend to focus on what men are not doing: Not going to therapy. Not opening up. Not doing the work.

If the hope was to shame men into better mental health, it has not worked. In Maryland, the male suicide nearly rate is four times the rate for women. Nationwide, suicide has climbed by more than a third since 2010 for young men.

In Maryland and the country overall, the data track the same arc: rising deaths of despair, rising loneliness, rising disengagement from school and work. The data send a clear message: We need to stop treating our young men and boys as problems to be solved, and start treating them as people to be invested in. My administration’s governing philosophy is to leave no one behind, regardless of their gender or background.

As the father of a son and a daughter, I want both of my children to grow up with all of their God-honoring and God-given opportunities. But to realize the full potential and power of Maryland’s people, and America’s more broadly, we need to make sure our men and boys aren’t still falling behind. I strongly believe our mission to uplift men and boys isn’t in conflict with our value to leave no one behind — it’s in concert with them.

But behind those numbers is a message we have allowed our culture to send to young men: that they are unnecessary. The truth is the opposite. We need them in our families, classrooms, workplaces, and communities.

If we want them to believe it, we have to act like it. That starts with understanding why our systems keep missing them. Young men and boys experience distress the same way anyone does, but they tend to express it differently.

Boys are more likely to act out, take risks, or shut down. We have taught them that men should address those feelings with stoicism. The result is a quiet crisis.

A boy who is depressed gets labeled defiant. A young man addicted to sports betting is labeled irresponsible. We view young men as liabilities requiring protection or management, rather than assets with significant potential.

We code mental health needs as behavioral problems, and we respond with control instead of care. In Maryland, we’re flipping that script. In 2025, I directed my administration to implement solutions across the government to help young men and boys.

Last year, we launched the Young Men and Boys Initiative — the first statewide effort dedicated to coordinating support for young men and boys across agencies, sectors, and communities. The idea is simple: What young men really need are opportunities to be useful, to belong, and to be seen. Four of our priorities show what that looks like in practice.

The first is service. When I ran for governor, I made the case that Maryland should be a state of service, and we created the Service Year Option to make a paid year of service available to every high school graduate. Since 2023, more than 1,600 Marylanders have started this program, serving in all 24 jurisdictions.

Service is sticky. When you’re serving side by side, you build bonds with people who are different from you and whom you likely wouldn’t have otherwise met. You develop a deeper empathy and understanding of others.