Posted yesterday on the
Teen Mental Health Blog:
Canada has a proud history of valuing health care as part of the fabric of this country and a basic right for all citizens. However, despite our commitment to overall health care, our attention to mental health care is overdue.
In Canada, approximately 1 in 5 children and adolescents experience some form of mental disorder. Most major mental disorders begin prior to the age of 25, making this period a critical time for the promotion and treatment of mental health problems.
One of the key initiatives of the Mental Health Commission of Canada is to develop a Mental Health Strategy for Canada. As part of the strategy the Child and Youth Advisory Committee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada will support the development of a framework specific to the needs of child and youth mental health.
We need your help!!
We invite all Canadians to share their thoughts and opinions in an online survey about values and principles relating to child and youth mental health.
TAKE THE SURVEY NOW
The survey [please click here] will take about 30 minutes to complete (but you can save your answers and come back to it at any time).
It is important that we get the thoughts and opinions from as many different people as possible. Please pass this information along to your network, family, friends, or anyone who you think should join this consultation.
Posted yesterday on
Teen Mental Health Blog:
So after months of team discussion we have finally made our first foray into Facebook! Yeah I know … we are a little behind the trend - but better late than never.
Our goal is to get over 1,000 people to become a fan of our “Help Canada Create a Youth Mental Health Strategy” page.
The Facebook page is an offshoot of our Evergreen project - a collaborative initiative with the Mental Health Commission of Canada to produce a document to help improve policy and programming related to child and adolescent mental health across Canada.
We created the Facebook page for 4 primary reasons:
- Engagement - we want people to share their opinions with us about what values and principles Canadians want to uphold in relation to mental illness and child and adolescent mental health services. On July 1st the public forum will be open for you to share your voice.
- Education - an informed public is a strong public. Our Facebook page will feature some of the guides and information uploaded on our teenmentalheatlh.org site. We want to give people the best available info to make good decisions about their mental health.
- Advocacy - the Mental Health Commission of Canada is committed to creating a comprehensive mental health strategy for Canada and are in support of a component specific to the needs of children and youth. Youth mental health will stay in the shadows unless we speak up and advocate for change - Facebook is just one of the ways you can speak up.
- Connection - facebook is a great way to connect with people who share similar causes to you. By creating this page we want to connect people who care about youth mental health and want to make a difference to Canada’s mental health system.
Help make a difference for thousands of young people. Join “Help Canada Create a Youth Mental Health Strategy“.
