June 24, 2024 | Ottawa, Ontario | Health Canada
To ensure that every young person in Canada can reach their full potential, it is important to provide timely access to appropriate mental health care. Stress and anxiety take a toll on young people’s mental health. To help young people cope, easy and equitable access to mental health services, where and when they need them, is critical.
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 that provide mental health support and services to youth. It will help community health organizations expand mental health services for young people in Canada and ensure these organizations are able to refer youth to broader mental health support networks when needed.
The YMHF is a once-in-a-lifetime investment in our young people when they need it most. It is important that the Fund accurately reflects youth voices and is designed to have the greatest possible impact. To that end, the Honourable Ya’ara Saks, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Deputy Minister of Health, today launched an online public consultation to support the development of the YMHF.
The online consultation will run from June 24 to July 31, 2024 and invites 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 levels of government, Indigenous organizations and community organizations that provide mental health services to youth.
The information gathered through this consultation, along with further opportunities to engage provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, community organizations, academics and youth themselves, will help ensure that this new initiative meets the complex mental health needs of youth across the country.
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