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Seven more B.C. school districts get mental health, substance use teams for kids and youth

The teams offer counselling, peer and cultural supports in schools, homes and community settings

B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside.
B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

B.C. is boosting supports for children, youth and their families battling mental health and substance use issues.

Seven more school districts in the province will get integrated child and youth teams. They will serve Fraser-Cascade school district (Hope, Harrison and Agassiz), Kootenay-Columbia (Trail), Mission, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Okanagan-Shuswap (Salmon Arm), Pacific Rim (Port Alberni) and Powell River.

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“Integrated child and youth teams make is easier for young people and their families to connect to the care they need, where and when they need it,” said Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside in a release Thursday.

Whiteside said the teams will “fill gaps and better co-ordinate mental health, wellness and substance-use care in schools and in the community.”

The teams offer counselling, peer and cultural supports in schools, homes and community settings. They include clinical counsellors, youth substance-use and mental health clinicians, Indigenous Elders and workers supporting Indigenous children and youth.

The multi-disciplinary teams offer assessment and screening, consulting and therapeutic services to children up to 19 years old and their families.

The teams already offer support in Richmond, Coast Mountains (Terrace and Hazelton), Okanagan-Similkameen (Oliver and area), Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows and the Comox Valley. The B.C. government plans to offer the service in 20 school districts by 2025.

The service is available to children, youth and families throughout each district, whether they attend public schools, First Nations-operated schools, independent, francophone or alternative schools or are not attending school.

The expansion of teams is part of the ministry’s Pathway to Hope initiative for mental-health and addictions care in B.C.

A few quick facts from the ministry:

• About 75 per cent of serious mental-health issues emerge before the age of 25.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected children and youth, especially those who were already struggling.

• About 12.7 per cent of children between the ages of four and 18 are affected by mental-health disorders; 44.2 per cent of those receive services.

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