Since the pandemic hit, CHMA Waterloo Wellington has reported a 40 per cent increase in youth accessing mental health services. The three Grove Hub sites for youth have seen the same increase.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It shows progress as a community, said CEO of the CMHA WW, Helen Fishburn.
“We want our call volumes to reflect the way our community is feeling,” said Fishburn.
“If our call volumes were low right now, I'd be much more worried.”
Fishburn said the community is making progress around mental health stigma, but we’re still not wholly stigma-free.
“The pandemic has been the great equalizer for us that way because mental health has been the conversation. Throughout the pandemic, people are talking about trust, anxiety, worry, impact and isolation in a much more open way than we've ever had before,” said Fishburn adding that the community has a lot more to go with people who struggle with addiction and deep-rooted mental health issues.
“There continues to be shame about even though there's no reason to feel shame, people still do carry that shame with them.”
The Grove opened in June and began tracking numbers across its sites in September. The Grove has a location in Fergus, Palmerston and Erin. This month, it plans to open two Guelph locations, including one in the Guelph Y and one at the University of Guelph.
Since opening, The Grove saw 5,646 youth participate in 394 activities.
Out of the 5,646 youth attending The Grove, 3,765 came for drop-in activities, 625 came for wellness or recreation activities, 690 youth came from employment or education support, 55 came for service referrals and coordination help, and 11 came for 2SLGBTQ support.
Director of The Grove Youth Hubs, Cyndy Moffat Forsyth, said she’s seen the shift in attitudes around mental health.
“We're not 100 per cent there yet by any stretch of the imagination, but I have seen youth come through the door and specifically ask for help where I don't think they would have before,” said Forsyth.
She said one of the keys to success for The Grove is following the provincial Youth Wellness Hubs models, which is about youth driving to change.
“So we've got youth ambassadors who greet our youth when they walk in the door. They're very similar in age, and they help you get acclimatized to the space. It's not me, it's not a mental health clinician. It's somebody who's 23 years old who can say, `Hey, I've been where you have been, or why don't you come in and we'll shoot a game at a pool and let's chat,’” said Forsyth.
She said before the pandemic, it was estimated that one in five youth was suffering from some sort of mental health issue or substance use, and now, anecdotally, The Grove believes the number is three out of five.
Fishburn said the last pandemic wave has been the toughest. Numbers began to drastically increase in January because of the uncertainty around school, difference in vaccination beliefs and the new Omicron variant.
She said referrals for eating disorders have gone through the roof.
“Before COVID, we had a two-month waiting list for eating disorders programs for children and youth. That waiting list is now 18 months, and that's for youth between the ages of 14 and 24," said Fishburn.
“Before COVID, we had 11 kids on our child psychiatry waitlist. Now we have 180.”
She said approximately 20 children were waiting for counselling and treatment services before COVID, and now there are 140 on the waitlist.
She said the services are not first-come, first-serve, and the organization always tries to prioritize the needs of children and youth and families based on risk in urgency. She also added that there is never a wait for the CMHA WW’s crisis service.
“For the past two years, we had to really adapt and adjust to a new way of fighting COVID at a time when people are just physically and emotionally exhausted. You're just done,” said Fishburn.
“The fact that they're calling and reaching out at a time that we know they need to is actually a really amazing success story and demonstration that we're really making progress around stigma but also that people are prepared to meet their mental health needs in the same way that they would if they had a physical need.”
