Manitoba youth sound off on need for mental health supports in new report
Young people in Manitoba are calling for more mental health supports.
It's one of several requests as part of a new report from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY), which aims to shed light on some of the biggest issues young people face today.
The special report titled 'The Right to Be Heard' is based on MACY's Listening Tour.
Initially, the advocate's office travelled to different communities between January and March 2020. In this time, more than one-thousand youths were part of this outreach. The pandemic put a halt to the travel plans, and instead, an online survey was launched in the spring of 2020.
"You asked me to pick five things I'm concerned about in this community but so many of the options I was given are so closely linked, and most of them relate to mental health," said one youth in the report. "Drug abuse is a mental health issue. Bullying is a mental health issue. Violence is a mental health issue."
Acting Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth Ainsley Krone said the youth, primarily between the ages of 14 and 20, spoke about a number of issues.
"They talked to us about being online, and what it's like to grow up online in a big way, especially during a time when so much of us are doing so many things remotely," Krone said.
The reports shows the top five concerns among youth are substance use, mental health and well-being, poverty, violence, and racism and discrimination.
"Some of these issues are issues that we see regularly in our work, in our direct advocacy for young people here at the office, in our investigative work, in our research, our youth engagement," said Krone.
The survey results, which include direct feedback from nearly 300 young people, were presented to youth in May of this year for feedback and ideas.
"It's important for youth to know that they can talk to adults, and there's adults out there that are willing to actually listen, and willing to make a change, and help youth make a change on their own," said Sophia Stang, a member of the Youth Ambassador Advisory Squad.
When asked what solutions they would like to see, the youth listed mental health and addictions-related services and programs at the top of the list, followed by community-based recreation activities, cultural activities, sexual health programs, and schools and learning centres.
Mental Health, Wellness and Recovery Minister Audrey Gordon said in a statement to CTV News that her government is working to further improve mental health and addictions supports for youth in Manitoba.
"As a result, the department of Mental Health, Wellness and Recovery will be creating an action plan to help enhance mental health, wellness, and addictions services in Manitoba,” said Gordon, who is also currently Manitoba’s Health Minister.
Krone said while there are a number of great mental health services in Manitoba, there are still several gaps in the system.
"The problem is that we don't have enough of those excellent service providers because the need is so significant, which is why we're seeing the issue of wait lists as such a significant one here in Manitoba," Krone said.
Krone and her office are now hoping to meet with leaders in communities across the province to hear from them about the issues youth are facing in their areas.
The MACY survey is still available online for youth interested in sharing their feedback.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.