{"id":2427,"date":"2023-01-02T22:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T22:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bccdcfound.wpengine.com\/?post_type=our-projects&p=2427"},"modified":"2024-06-26T21:26:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T21:26:23","slug":"childyouthmentalhealth","status":"publish","type":"our-projects","link":"https:\/\/pacificpublichealth.ca\/projects\/childyouthmentalhealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Youth Mental Health<\/h1>

Supporting youth mental health is an investment in the future. <\/strong><\/h3>

Adolescence is an important developmental stage and a time of many changes, establishing behaviours that set the stage for long-term health outcomes. Positive well-being during this time leads to healthier adulthood, and early-life interventions can promote better quality of life.

Prior to the pandemic, youth mental health was declining, and growing evidence \u2014 including stories from youth themselves \u2014 of the unintended consequences of the last few years is showing that youth are one of the population groups most negatively impacted, with damaging effects to their mental health. Certain groups of youth appear to be disproportionately affected and, when multiple factors collide, such as the climate crisis, Indigeneity, and structural racism, it drives poorer mental health outcomes.

While there are a number of barriers to supporting youth mental health, there are also strategies and interventions in BC that can promote youth well-being. Recent data and reports are providing the context in which we can play a role in advancing this critical area through a variety of ways, which include focusing on positive well-being, and creating protective and promotive factors through mental health promotion strategies that help youth to thrive. We can also adopt a systems- and community-based approach grounded in equity, the determinants of health, reducing stigma, supporting harder to reach populations, creating resiliency, and incorporating Indigenous perspectives of health and ways of knowing. As with much of our understanding of health, we must shift to an approach that emphasizes positive health promotion, and enable actions that focus on proactively strengthening well-being, not merely addressing deficits or illness.
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