Young people across Canada are facing unprecedented challenges with their mental health and wellness. Too often, the services they need are fragmented, difficult to access or not designed with them in mind. Indigenous youth continue to experience significant gaps in care.
To address these urgent challenges, the Government of Canada is investing more than $30 million over four years to strengthen and expand the existing Integrated Youth Services Network of Networks (IYS-Net) across the country. This investment will be made through the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) and Indigenous Services Canada, and their partners including the Graham Boeckh Foundation (GBF) and Bell-GBF partnership.
The Honourable Marjorie Michel, Canada's Minister of Health, announced the funding today while visiting the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal, where youth mental health is one of their primary focus areas.
This funding will advance research, data and knowledge sharing within and across 12 provincial and territorial IYS networks and a pan-Canadian Indigenous network, to identify which supports work best for young people. IYS hubs aim to provide youth aged 12 to 25 and their families with a single, accessible place to find help with mental health, substance use, physical health, housing, peer support and other essential services.
With this investment, each network will receive funding to enhance its research capacity and IYS data system. For example:
- In Newfoundland and Labrador, a new project is studying how to build on the success of Carter's Hill Place, using it as a model to guide the launch of two more Integrated Youth Services hubs, while learning what supports help youth most and how to keep improving care over time.
- In Alberta, Kickstand is developing "Kickstand360," a province-wide learning health system co-designed with youth that uses data and continuous feedback to improve youth mental health services, and the StandOUT Lab, a youth-led research hub.
- In Québec, Aire ouverte is strengthening its learning health system by expanding how data are collected and used, identifying research priorities and building stronger partnerships to make services for young people faster, easier to access and more effective.
- In the Yukon, youth, Elders and communities will co-lead research to build a supportive learning community, map current services to identify gaps and develop new ways to share information between service providers, ensuring youth no longer have to "tell their story over and over" to get help.
- Through the Indigenous IYS network, First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth and communities across Canada will lead research and co-design efforts to develop culturally grounded services rooted in Indigenous knowledge and governance.
By building stronger data systems, these networks will also form part of a pan-Canadian "Learning Health System"-a system where data, research and real-world experiences are continuously used to improve care, policies and outcomes for youth.
