{"id":29242,"date":"2021-05-06T23:21:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T03:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29242"},"modified":"2021-05-14T00:16:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T04:16:01","slug":"youth-call-for-further-mental-health-supports-in-light-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/youth-call-for-further-mental-health-supports-in-light-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth call for further mental health supports in light of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Courtenay Field grew up in an immigrant household where mental health, by her own admission, \u201cwas a very taboo subject.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Aurora student realized she needed to seek help, she felt unable to do so because she was a minor and financially reliant on her parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an adult, however, Ms. Field is dedicating her time to empowering youth to take control of their mental health \u201cby giving them the resources to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will be life and death for so many,\u201d says Ms. Field, a member of Future Majority, a non-partisan, non-profit group dedicated to \u201camplifying the voices of young Canadians so every candidate, politician, and party is an advocate for youth priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Majority launched their latest campaign last week, one dedicated to addressing the mental health crisis, one that has only been exacerbated by the global pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCOVID has been hard on all of us,\u201d says Ms. Field, a graduate of Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School. \u201cIt is a time where I myself have faced unforeseen challenges within my career and I was unable to get the regular support I would from my friends and family. Now more than ever, Canadians \u2013 particularly young Canadians like myself \u2013 are experiencing increased mental health challenges and looking for support. Across Canada, Future Majority volunteers have been meeting with representatives from major parties over the last few weeks to share our stories and concerns about mental health. We have been blown away by the response from the Conservative, Liberal, NDP and Green representatives in ridings across the country who have agreed to our cross-partisan letter and take a stand on the importance of Mental Health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an initiative promoted not only by Future Majority, but a number of local organizations including Black Youth York Region, York Pride, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (York Region), Communities for Public Education, Dynamic Dance Company, Bully Free York Region, Windfall Ecology Centre, and Phoenix Leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCanadians are facing a mental health crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic,\u201d said Julia Mellary, a local Future Majority volunteer. \u201cThe word \u2018uncertainty\u2019 continues to pop up as a common theme throughout the last year, whether it be relating to the reopening of schools, return to in-person work\/volunteer opportunities, or visiting family. Mental health is an issue that touches all of us, thus a core element of the solution is making mental health a priority issue for every politician. Because young people are the largest voting bloc and we\u2019ve voted in record numbers in the past two Federal elections, we have the power to make mental health an issue that every politician and party in Newmarket-Aurora prioritizes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Mellary told those in attendance at last week\u2019s launch that she became passionate about mental health when she recognized just how prevalent both anxiety and depression was among her peers while in high school at Newmarket\u2019s Sacred Heart. There, she took action joining forces with a teacher to form a mental health council at school dedicated not only to providing healthy coping mechanisms to her fellow students but connecting them with local resources as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was abundantly clear once I graduated that the mental health crisis we\u2019re experiencing at this time transcends what school mental health clubs are able to provide struggling educators and students,\u201d she said. \u201cResources to professional mental health clubs are necessary for all Canadians and this does require the support of all parties. Mental health effects every Canadian and this is an issue that requires our attention more than ever in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic, they add, has given Canadians a prime opportunity to connect, with social media channels providing a \u201cversatile tool\u201d to organize. The crisis has also made it clear that mental health supports are \u201cneeded and necessary\u201d for \u201call Canadians in order to lead stable and prosperous lives.\u201d \u201cThe great thing about what Future Majority is [doing is] implementing a long-term strategy for the campaign,\u201d adds Courtenay. \u201cThere are multiple party goals that actually take it beyond just one day. It is about creating something that is sustainable, which is really important. In the short term, we are advocating for a $2,000 mental health spending account, which would be for the next 12 months and provide essential supports that are needed right now. We\u2019re asking for a Royal Commission on a universal mental health program which would investigate the negative mental health outcomes caused by systemic racism and poverty and how to address it. In the long-term, we\u2019re asking for universal mental health care for all Canadians where [you can use] your Health Card and not just your credit card to get those mental health supports that people need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/2021-05-06-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7BE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 20:08:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}