beingwell magazine winter 2007
By: Amy West
Mental health is an essential component of young people’s overall health and wellbeing.
When untreated, mental health disorders can lead to school failure, family conflicts, drug abuse, violence and even suicide.
“There is a tremendous need for mental health treatment in this country,” said Wendy Leve, manager of child and adolescent mental health at Southlake Regional Health Centre. “About 15 per cent of Canadian children have mental health issues — that’s approximately 1.2 million children in Canada.”
Those cases include young people suffering from disturbances such as obsessive compulsive disorder, gender identity issues, eating disorders and abuse-related symptoms, just to name a few.
“We’re also seeing an awful lot of children with severe anxiety issues,” said Ms Leve.
Although it is common for young people to experience mental health difficulties, the stigma often leaves a young person frightened to speak up and ask for support.
That’s why a local charitable foundation is working with Southlake to raise awareness of adolescent mental illness and to make it easier for kids to get help.
“When you read the hospital’s annual report, it’s broken down into cancer care, cardiac unit, and so on. Each of these sections is illustrated with photos of smiling people who have conquered their disease,” said a spokesperson for the foundation. “But when you get to the section on mental illness, the faces are all blacked out. It just looked wrong to me that such a stigma should be attached to this disease.”
“There needs to be better awareness that this is a sickness and it deserves the same level of treatment as any other illness,” said the spokesperson.
Encouraging young people to talk about their worries, showing them there is someone who cares and wants to support them, can often make a lot of difference.
“There are a lot of good child mental health agencies in York region and we work closely with all of them,” says Ms Leve. “They also treat children and families in the region, but because we have access to psychiatrists, our programs are able to offer an intensive level of service.”
According to Ms Leve, there aren’t many mild to moderate cases in York region.
“They’re mostly severe, and all child and adolescent mental health agencies are dealing with complex multifaceted problems of children together with their families.”
The foundation has been supporting children’s programs for the last four years, donating over $225,000 last year alone to support breakfasts at school, summer camps, Christmas wishes, Arts for Children, autism and family shelters as well as its ongoing support of Southlake.
The foundation prefers to work anonymously, so the focus stays where it should be — on children’s mental health issues.
“The annual budget at Southlake for mental health programs is the same as it was 20 years ago,” says the spokesperson. “What we’re trying to do through our ongoing donations is raise awareness, improve access and services so that we can deal with issues early and in a more preventative manner.
“We do it because we want to enhance the lives of kids in our community,” the spokesperson stresses. “We don’t do it for the publicity, we do it because it’s the right thing to do.”