Aurora student Daniel Mojarrab said mental health support for students in high schools is not where it should be.
Although he said he has seen some improvement in those services over his years in high school, as mental health gets more of a focus in the community, he said there needs to be better support within schools themselves.
“A lot of kids are dealing with different situations in their household, and I feel like for them, they should definitely have access,” Mojarrab said, adding that schools are working to improve mental health “but I definitely think it should be increasing at a faster rate.”
Mojarrab was one of the youth members of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leah Taylor Roy's office at a July 18 roundtable discussion on youth mental health in the community. Dozens of community leaders in the field gathered at York Region Administrative Centre in Newmarket to discuss improving youth mental health, as the federal government rolls out a new $500-million funding program.
The fund announced as part of the 2024 April federal budget is aimed at helping community organizations provide more care for younger Canadians, but the roll-out remains to be determined.
Taylor Roy said the roundtable discussion was a way to talk about addressing mental health challenges in the region and bridge the gap between the mental health services we have now and what is needed.
“I’m sure many of you here would say the gap is large,” she said. “But it is a gap that we need to address as best we can, step by step.”
Representatives from the Regional Municipality of York, 360°kids, Blue Door and more were in attendance to provide their input. Questions ranged from whether there is a need to increase the number of youth mental health workers, what services need to be expanded and where people think the fund should focus on.
Canadian Mental Health Association York Region South Simcoe chief executive officer Rebecca Shields said the $500-million fund is a significant and much-needed commitment, with mental health issues rising among youth. She said the results of that can be tragic.
“What scares us all the most, the risk of suicide and lives lost,” she said, but added that they are there to collaborate to find good solutions.”Some of them are happening already.”
The province announced earlier this month that plans to build a new mental health and addictions hub in Newmarket are now going to advance and will go out to tender later this year.
Richmond Hill student Rishi Thurairajah is working with Taylor Roy’s office through a youth leadership program. As someone who has faced mental health struggles, Thurairajah said it is lovely to see this collaboration happening.
“Having everyone here and having a unified message and a unified plan for these kind of things is really, really important … We all have the same end goal, and that’s to help the youth and help people with mental health struggles.”
