{"id":82804,"date":"2024-05-10T12:24:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/?p=82804"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:38:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:38:56","slug":"youth-mental-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/youth-mental-health-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Youth Mental Health Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Owen Charters<\/a>, President & CEO, BGC Canada<\/p>\n

May 10, 2024<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I attended the First Annual Mental Health Summit in Ottawa, where I presented on a youth mental health panel.\u202f Unfortunately, the message was that the kids are not alright.\u202f <\/em><\/h4>\n

On one hand, kids are better at identifying and managing mental health issues than ever before \u2013 they know about and talk about issues like anxiety and depression, self-harm and suicide ideation without the same hesitation and stigma that older generations have.\u202fThey routinely self-identify when they are feeling symptoms of poor mental health.\u202f This is good \u2013 knowing the problem helps with fixing the problem.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the problem persists.\u202fIt was prevalent before the pandemic, and it is worse today. Kids are vulnerable and are easily influenced.\u202f They are struggling with the intrusion of social media in their lives (and the abuse, bullying and isolation it permits), the polarization of the political realm, the influence and availability of opioids and other substances.\u202f Food insecurity, labour insecurity, and housing insecurity also all contribute.\u202fThey struggle with the social skills they need to operate effectively in society \u2013 and two years of being rigidly anti-social during a pandemic (that hit them in their formative socialization years) \u2013 is a real one.<\/p>\n

BGC Clubs are witness to this problem and are trying to provide help.\u202f And it manifests in staff mental health challenges as well \u2013 dealing with the stress of other stressed-out youth takes a toll, but also the same societal problems are affecting the staff as they try to be professional mentors too.<\/p>\n

There is no easy solution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the conversation on my panel led to the things we can do.\u202f And the answer in some cases \u2013 in many cases \u2013 is Clubs.\u202f The answer is not that Clubs have to provide more formal mental health supports.\u202fIt\u2019s not even that we need to run more of our BounceBack League or Flex Your Head programs<\/a> (although that would be great!) \u2013 for those of you that don\u2019t know these programs, they are explicitly designed around mental health discussions and engagement.<\/p>\n

Clubs just need to be Clubs.\u202fSocial health equals mental health. Engaging with other humans in a non-hierarchical setting, without the pressures of school and without the stress of family dynamics, is incredibly effective at building healthy, resilient, social engagement and stronger mental health.\u202fFor adults, this might be called the coffee shop or the pub, or even your local sports league or running group.\u202f For kids, it\u2019s places like BGC Clubs.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to be flippant.\u202fSocial engagement does not resolve inclinations for self-harm, or suicidal thoughts.\u202fIt does not cure clinical depression and anxiety.\u202fThose require support from trained professionals.\u202fAnd Clubs can and do access these services or provide referrals.<\/p>\n

But we have a prevalence of mental health concerns today.\u202fIn fact the New York Times reported on the fact that a recent study<\/a> showed that the more mental health was discussed with youth, those same youth then reported that their mental health was worse.\u202f This is called \u2018prevalence inflation\u2019 \u2013 the more you discuss something, the more people feel they may identify with the problem personally.\u202fIt\u2019s a bit like Googling the symptoms of your sore throat \u2013 twelve clicks later, and you start to believe you only have weeks to live.<\/p>\n

To combat this, the more we discuss mental health and normalize our approach to it, the more we also need to increase normalizing social situations where children and teens can just be themselves and hang out.\u202f If we see everything through the lens of mental health, we exacerbate the problem. But if we integrate it in our work and allow it to fade to the background and let a supportive, social, and engaging experience take the lead, we will see better outcomes. Getting support for your homework, playing basketball, learning to cook a new dish \u2013 all of these are forms of mental health supports that don\u2019t fit a formal, clinical support model. At the core, this is what Clubs are, and what Clubs do.<\/p>\n

Sadly, we still must deal with the rise of serious mental health challenges.\u202fI have had more parents come to me \u2013 not necessarily of Club kids \u2013 who are seeking help for their children, and I hear dire and difficult stories of self-harm, violence, and acting out, and desperate parents who don\u2019t know how to get the help they need.\u202fI am shocked at how often this is mentioned to me in social settings, over a drink, at a meal \u2013 more families need help.\u202fI am glad that they are talking about it, and seeking the help they need.\u202f We continue to work to reduce the stigma that comes from talking about mental health.<\/p>\n

And in the most difficult situations, we must remember how Clubs rally to provide the essential, front-line support that\u2019s needed.\u202fWhen I met with some Toronto Clubs earlier this week, I heard devastating stories of the effects of gun violence on Club kids \u2013 and how traumatized families don\u2019t get the supports they need in the immediate hours after a shooting or fatality \u2013 police services, city services are focused on their work, and that doesn\u2019t mean 24-hour support for a grieving family.\u202fWhen no one is there for the family, the Club is, providing immediate needs, wrapping their arms around the grief and trauma \u2013 staying with them with food and comfort for as long as necessary.\u202fIn fact, the City calls on some of our Toronto Clubs to provide support when they know they can\u2019t. Other social services have working hours only – Clubs fill these gaps and work 24\/7 for whatever is needed. I cannot imagine greater distress than losing a child to gun violence and I am disturbed to hear that social services don\u2019t provide what is needed at those times.\u202fThis is a condemnation of our broken systems \u2013 the mental health system doesn\u2019t provide what is needed. But once again, Clubs do.<\/p>\n

The CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Margaret Eaton, described our mental health system as a quilt, a frayed patchwork of bits and pieces put together in odd ways to try to cover the needs of Canadians.\u202f Clubs are an essential part of that quilt, and we are asking for investment in our work<\/a>, and recognition of the essential services that Clubs provide to children, youth, and families.<\/p>\n

Help BGC Canada support youth mental health. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Donate today<\/a> or become a BGC partner.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada May 10, 2024 Yesterday, I attended the First Annual Mental Health Summit in Ottawa, where I presented on a youth mental health panel.\u202f Unfortunately, the message was that the kids are not alright.\u202f On one hand, kids are better at identifying and managing mental health issues than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[88,89,44,432,433],"class_list":["post-82804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bgc-news","tag-bgc-canada","tag-bgc-clubs","tag-owen-charters","tag-youth-mental-health","tag-youth-mental-health-crisis"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82804","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90320,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82804\/revisions\/90320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}