$1.5M to explore best practices for youth mental health

Funding support for youth mental health program The Foundry is recognized as a potential game-changer when it comes to supporting young people's mental health, and it all started here in B.C.

As a teen, Natasha struggled with anger, didn't want to leave her room and didn't know what was going on. Doctors suggested it was hormones, a part of growing up, but it wasn't until she found mental health supports until she had a name for it: depression.

The teen's story, shared on the Foundry's YouTube page, points to some of the issues young people struggling with mental health face, and is why the one-stop shop for those aged 12 to 24 exists.

The program encourages youth to be advocates for their mental health, utilizing other young people to provide help before the person reaches a crisis stage.

Steve Mathias is the executive director of Foundry, which along with mental health supports, offers substance use, primary care, sexual health care and social services.

"What we often hear from youth is that if Foundry didn't exist, one out of four kids wouldn't go anywhere to get support," Mathias said Monday.

Founded in 2016, currently, there are 11 locations around the province, and eight more planned.

To replicate the success of the program and reach youth who may not otherwise get it is why the Bell-Graham Boek Foundation Partnership is gifting $1.5 million over three years to the program.

The announcement came just days before Bell Let's Talk Day, which is meant to spark conversations and raise money to address mental health challenges. CTV News is owned by Bell.

Foundry is seen as a model for how kids in the future will get mental health and other supports. The money will be used to expand research into the centre – why it works – and will eventually be used to help kids across the country.

A news release said the funding would "help to bolster Foundry’s research team and its Knowledge Translation and Exchange (KTE) team over the next three years to improve integrated health and social services for youth and their families and caregivers in B.C., and support other emerging Integrated Youth Services (IYS) initiatives around the country and beyond."

Dan Nixon, a Youth Engagement Specialist with Foundry, said one of the keys to the program's success is how big a role youth play.

"The people who will be impacted by findings of research should not only be involved in the research process but should be the researchers themselves, this is the future Foundry sees," Nixon said at a virtual even announcing the funding.

He added he was "giddy" when thinking about the impact the research could have for kids across the country.