Child and Youth Mental Health in BC

What a wonderful month it’s been for shedding light on the health of children and youth in our province. I’d like to start by giving HUGE congratulations to the Abbotsford Division of Family Practice on winning the Premier’s Award for its collaborative work on the Abbotsford Youth Health Centre. This centre – a partnership between the Division, Abbotsford Community Services, Impact Youth Substance Use Services, and the Ministries of Health and Children and Families – provides health services to under serviced, high-risk youth in Abbotsford, and fills many gaps in care. Congratulations to all involved for being awarded this significant acknowledgment, it is a great reminder of the positive change that BC physicians can accomplish through partnership and collaboration!

Another important partnership, the Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use (CYMHSU) Collaborative, had its Spread and Sustainability Congress meeting in Kelowna last week. This Collaborative is tackling issues around the siloed, confusing, and challenging access to care for our child and youth population. They’re working on making it easier for youth, families, and health care providers to access services and support before situations reach a crisis point. Through strong commitment – and some very tough conversations – this Collaborative has made real progress in creating a framework for care that emphasizes a family-focused model. This truly is an example of a remarkable partnership, one that includes Doctors of BC through the Shared Care and Specialist Services Committees, Ministries of Health, Children and Family Development, and Education, Interior Health, First Nations Health Council and, most recently, Island Health. It also involves parents, youth, family doctors, psychiatrists, paediatricians, social workers, school counsellors, Aboriginal services, health administrators, and RCMP officers. Learnings from the CYMUSU are already starting to spread from the Interior to other Health Authorities as additional communities engage and express their readiness to join – something that is nothing but great news for child and youth mental health in our province!

Lastly Doctors of BC’s newest policy paper, “Reaching Out: Supporting Youth Mental Health in British Columbia”, can be found on our website under ‘Health Policy’, and I strongly encourage you to read it.  As a complement to this policy paper, we also created a “microsite” – also known as an information portal – at openmindbc.ca to provide coordinated and streamlined access to existing mental health resources for youth, their friends, family, doctors, teachers and other key stakeholders.  Please do check it out – there are a multitude of resources to help you find what you are looking for.

I have to say how thoroughly impressed I am by each of these initiatives and partnerships and the work that they are achieving. It’s a prime example of what can happen when we don’t shy away from the difficult problems, but instead commit to asking ourselves “What makes sense for the patient?” Through this approach we truly can and do become a profession of respect and a profession of influence.