Launch of first-ever Canadian youth mental health platform transforms research and treatment, Canadian Business Journal

MONTREAL, Oct. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Pioneering Youth Mental Health Project will advance Canada-wide understanding of youth mental health needs and drive new assessment and treatment approaches. With 1 in 4 Canadian youth in need of mental health services each year, initiatives like this are urgent and important for the well-being of young people.of “Canadian Youth Mental Health Insights (CYMHI) Platform” Take advantage of RBC Future Launch, Use open data, machine learning, and other methods to improve communication between young people and families, researchers, clinicians, and other service providers with diverse mental health experiences and specialties .

A dedicated research team was awarded a $5.13 million grant to create this platform for optimizing mental health with and for young people across Canada. Significant funding comes from RBC Future Launch, Power Corporation of Canada, and the Canadian Brain Research Foundation (CBRF). The Canadian Brain Research Foundation (CBRF) is an innovative arrangement between the Government of Canada, through Health Canada and Brain Canada.

Led by Sean Hill, Ph.D., director of the Clenville Center of Neuroinformatics and senior scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the team works with academic institutions, community-based mental health services, hospitals, the Foundry, and Youth Wellness Hubs. Youth and family recommendations from Ontario, and other integrated youth services.

Insight Platform provides an interactive web portal for youth, families, clinicians, service providers, researchers and policy makers to access shared data, analytics and AI tools to optimize mental health care To do. The portal allows users to search for data and connect insights from community and school prevention programs, youth mental health services, and clinical research. The portal features AI-based services to help users navigate mental health services, personalized tools for mental health monitoring, risk identification, and service recommendations, and to guide service providers It also provides access to an interactive atlas of demand and availability of mental health services for young people. Policy maker.

“Through this project, we will provide a state-of-the-art informatics platform that will serve as a foundation for improving mental health and, importantly, for young people across the country,” said Hill. says. “It will foster high-impact research and the development of approaches to youth mental health that would otherwise not have been possible.”

“CYMHI is a great development to empower youth and youth-engaging initiatives and gain ownership to pave the way for the implementation of mental health services in the future,” said Youth Engagement Coordinator at The Foundry. Skyte Bali said. “At the grassroots level, this will help many youth-driven nonprofits better understand the support they need in their communities, backed by machine learning data across Canada.”

“9 out of 10 states now fund services with a research component, British Columbia fails to learn from New Brunswick, Ontario loses evidence from Saskatchewan, etc. ”said Steve Mathias, Executive Director of Providence, a CYMHI leadership team member. Center in British Columbia He is the healthcare and leader of Foundry, a network that provides health and wellness resources, services and support to young people in person and online. “It’s about bringing everyone together to share and exchange what we live and learn.”

Mental illness disproportionately affects young people aged 15 to 29 around the world. It accounts for about half of the total disease burden in this age group and is the leading cause of disability in Canada.

Dr. Viviane Poupon, President and CEO of Brain Canada, said: “We must invest in projects that have a tangible impact on the brain health of Canadian youth.”

“The stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are having a disproportionate impact on the mental health of Canadian youth. It is therefore imperative that we accelerate our efforts to ensure that young people have access to the right support when and where they need it,” said Carolyn Bennett, Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Addiction. . of health. “This groundbreaking mental health her platform will transform youth mental health services by listening to young people and responding to them based on a better understanding of their priorities, needs and treatment approaches. We keep improving.”

Mark Beckles, Vice President of Social Impact and Innovation at RBC, said: “Through our partnership with Canada, Blaine is focused on increasing and accelerating access to services for young people facing mental health challenges, and is developing his digital solutions for practitioners and researchers. We are promoting it.”

“At Power Corporation, we know how important it is to enhance access to mental health services and support for Canadian youth and their families wherever they live. Canadian Youth Mental Health Insight (CYMHI) ) platform, this advanced digital platform and Canadian-wide partnerships between researchers and practitioners will help bridge the gap in support and ultimately reach youth in every region of the country. We are committed to improving the quality of mental health care.”

This project was funded with generous support from Power Corporation of Canada, leveraging the RBC Future Launch through a 2021 call for Brain Canada Youth Mental Health Platform.

Funding for the Brain Canada Youth Mental Health Platform is made possible by the Canada Brain Research Fund (CBRF), an innovative arrangement between the Government of Canada (through Health Canada) and the Brain Canada Foundation.

For more information:
Melissa Araws
Brain Canada
[email protected]
514-377-6461

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