June 24, 2024 | Ottawa, Ontario | Health Canada
Providing timely and appropriate mental health care is essential to ensuring all young people in Canada can reach their full potential. Stress and anxiety are having a negative impact on young people's mental health. Ensuring easy and equitable access to mental health services when and where they need them is key to helping young people cope.
In Budget 2024, we announced $500 million in funding over five years to establish the Youth Mental Health Fund (YMHF). The Fund will provide resources and funding to communities, organizations and stakeholders across the country that provide mental health support and services to young people. The Fund will help community health organizations expand the mental health care they provide to youth living in Canada and equip these organizations to refer young people to broader mental health support networks when needed.
The YMHF is a once-in-a-generation investment given to young people at a time when they need it most. It is vital that the fund is designed to accurately represent young people's voices and make the biggest impact. To this end, Her Excellency Yaara Sachs, Minister for Mental Health and Addictions and Deputy Minister for Health, has today launched an online public consultation to help develop the YMHF.
The online consultation will run from June 24 to July 31, 2024, and invites people to share their views and expertise on the development of the YMHF. The consultation is open to all Canadians, including young people and their families, academics, other government agencies, Indigenous organizations, and community organizations that provide mental health services to young people.
Information gathered through this consultation, coupled with other engagement opportunities taking place with provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, community organizations, academics and young people themselves, will help ensure this new approach responds to the complex mental health needs of young people across the country.
