Through the Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, the Ontario government is aiming to strengthen mental health services for children, youth and their families while reducing stigma and raising awareness of mental health issues. Project updates include:
- A new Tele-Mental Health service which the government will launch this fall. It will provide 800 more children and youth in rural, remote and underserved communities access to mental health consultations through videoconferencing . All publically-funded mental health professionals will be able to refer young people to the new videoconferencing service.
- School boards are receiving an $8.6 million provincial investment to fund a mental health lead for each of the province’s 72 school boards in the 2013-14 school year.
- Ontario is providing ongoing funding to mindyourmind, a provincewide youth mental health program of the Family Service Thames Valley. The program works with youth to develop resources and coping tools that help manage stress, crisis situations and mental health-related problems. The resources are designed to reduce the stigma of mental illness, and increase access and use of both professional and peer-based community support. The government is providing $360,000 in annual funding to mindyourmind which has grown since 2004 into a multi-faceted, in-person and digital-based program.
See “Better Access to Mental Health Services for Children and Youth” and “Helping Youth Access Mental Health Resources” at www.news.ontario.ca.