OTTAWA, ON, June 24, 2024 /CNW/ - Providing timely access to appropriate mental health care is an essential part of ensuring every young person in Canada can reach their full potential. Stress and anxiety are taking a toll on the mental health of young people. Easy and equitable access to mental health services, where and when they need them, is key to helping young people cope.

Budget 2024 announced $500 million in funding over five years to establish the Youth Mental Health Fund (YMHF), which will provide resources and funding to communities, organizations, and stakeholders across the country who provide mental health supports and services to youth. It will help community health organizations expand the mental health care provided for younger people living in Canada and will ensure these organizations are equipped to refer youth to broader networks of mental health supports, when they are needed.

The YMHF is a once-in-generation investment in our young people when they need it most. It is essential that the fund accurately reflects youth voices and is designed to have the biggest impact. To this end, the Honourable Ya'ara Saks, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, today launched a public online consultation to help inform the development of the YMHF.

The online consultation will run from June 24 to July 31, 2024 and will invite people to share their perspectives and expertise on the development of the YMHF. The consultation is open to all Canadians, including young people and their families, academics, other orders of government, Indigenous organizations, and community organizations that deliver mental health services to youth.

The information gathered through this consultation, combined with other engagement opportunities taking place with provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, community organizations, academics and youth themselves, will help to make sure that this new initiative responds to the complex mental health needs of youth across the country.

"Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our future generations is paramount. When young people succeed, Canada thrives. That's why we want to hear directly from young people across the country and from those working on the frontlines in the mental health community. Through this public online consultation, we are seeking input on where the greatest mental health needs exist and how the new Youth Mental Health Fund can be used for maximum impact."

The Honourable Ya'ara Saks 
Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health

• The online consultation to inform the development of the Youth Mental Health Fund will run from June 24 to July 31, 2024.
• Through the Mental Health Promotion - Innovation Fund, the Government of Canada is investing $46.3 million from 2019-2029 to promote mental health among children, youth, and their caregivers.
• The Government of Canada, through its Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Plan, is also investing close to $200 billion over 10 years to improve health services across the country. This includes $46.2 billion in new funding for provinces and territories. Within this funding, $25 billion is for tailored bilateral agreements with provinces and territories to support work within shared priority areas including increasing access to mental health and substance use supports.
• Through the Mental Health of Black Canadians Fund, the Government of Canada has invested $10 million to support the mental health of Black individuals and communities, with the aim of supporting more culturally focused knowledge, capacity, and programs that address mental health and its determinants for Black Canadians.
• Through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Government of Canada has committed $59 million to advance the Integrated Youth Services Network of Networks initiative (IYS-Net) to strengthen and expand integrated youth service networks across Canada. This initiative will create a learning health system linked together by a web of provincial, territorial and Indigenous networks, where research evidence, and youths' lived experiences are used to inform processes, policies, and practices to improve mental health and substance use services across the country.

• Youth Mental Health Fund Consultation
• Budget 2024

SOURCE Health Canada (HC)