{"id":75675,"date":"2022-02-25T12:44:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T17:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/?p=75675"},"modified":"2026-04-02T21:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:38:57","slug":"the-root-causes-of-our-mental-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/the-root-causes-of-our-mental-health-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The root causes of our mental health crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Owen Charters<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday and today, and likely for weeks to come, the world will be glued to media as we watch Russia\u2019s devastating invasion of the Ukraine.\u00a0It is frightening to watch the largest military operation in Europe since the Second World War; a cowardly attack on a sovereign, democratic nation.<\/p>\n

This comes on the heels of an existing pandemic, anxiety about inflation, the \u2018Freedom Convoy\u2019 and blockades, and more.\u00a0No wonder the discussions and concerns about mental health are paramount.<\/p>\n

Recently, the members of NACY (National Alliance for Children and Youth\u2014the umbrella advocacy organization for child and youth-serving organizations) met with the Honourable Marci Ien, federal Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth.\u00a0It was Pink Shirt Day and the Minister had tweeted earlier that day some of the horrifically mean tweets<\/a> she has received as a politician.<\/p>\n

This is the atmosphere that is leading to the mental health challenges we\u2019re seeing across the population.\u00a0And it\u2019s not okay.<\/p>\n

It was not a surprise, then, when the Minister asked our organizations about youth mental health, clearly wanting to align the federal mandate of addressing mental health with our work and our concerns.\u00a0In fact, the government now has a Minister of Mental Health & Addictions, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, who I met with in December.<\/p>\n

Our Clubs are also urgently reporting on the growing concerns of mental health deterioration\u2014not only in the children and youth they serve, but in their staff teams as well.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing\u2014mental health is an indicator of other problems.\u00a0Yes, mental health must be addressed on its own, but it is also driven by the pressures that Club kids are facing each and every day. The glaringly obvious\u2014poverty, hunger\u2014and the insidious\u2014racism, xenophobia, a divided and angered society.<\/p>\n

Crime is another symptom of these problems.\u00a0The shooting death of a teenager<\/a> inside his high school in Scarborough has resulted in a 14-year-old charged with an \u2018execution\u2019 style attack.\u00a0This is horrific.\u00a0If you have followed the news over the past year, youth crime and violence and gang violence have all been growing in major centres across Canada.<\/p>\n

Crime and mental health. The message we stressed to the Minister was that both are symptoms of something bigger.\u00a0That addressing them\u2014and only them\u2014will not fix the problem.\u00a0I pleaded that we do not pour endless resources into law enforcement\u2014what we need is preventative investments.\u00a0That while we invest in mental health support, we also need to invest in youth engagement that stops the cycle of crime and mental health issues.<\/p>\n

We need to fight against a climate where politicians think it\u2019s ok, that it\u2019s right to criminalize the help and support that transgender children need.<\/a>\u00a0Or that children shouldn\u2019t know about sexuality and 2S & LGBTQIA+ issues<\/a>.\u00a0These are both U.S. examples, but the climate of repression, division, intolerance, and bigotry is virulent and contagious\u2014and we are not immune in Canada.<\/p>\n

War, pandemic, racism, discrimination.\u00a0It is no wonder that mental health is of significant concern.\u00a0We must address the mental health crisis,\u00a0but we must also address the underlying, root causes.\u00a0We must push back to create an open, caring, tolerant society.\u00a0A society where youth can grow and flourish, not build a shell of scars to harden themselves against a mean, cold world.\u00a0The latter leads to more crime, to more calls for mental health investments, to more problems. We must push back against demagogues, against repression.<\/p>\n

Investing in our youth will create the society we want.\u00a0Creating pathways of opportunity.\u00a0Fostering connections.\u00a0Developing resilience.\u00a0Providing hope.\u00a0That\u2019s the message we will continue to deliver to the federal government, to politicians and decision-makers, to anyone that will listen.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the message and the mission we will take to our youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Owen Charters Yesterday and today, and likely for weeks to come, the world will be glued to media as we watch Russia\u2019s devastating invasion of the Ukraine.\u00a0It is frightening to watch the largest military operation in Europe since the Second World War; a cowardly attack on a sovereign, democratic nation. This comes on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[279,89,65,870,839,260,842,871,857,872,873,859,145],"class_list":["post-75675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bgc-news","tag-2s-lgbtqia","tag-bgc-clubs","tag-ceo","tag-crime","tag-intervention","tag-mental-health","tag-prevention","tag-root-causes","tag-russia","tag-texas","tag-transgender","tag-ukraine","tag-youth"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}