Canadian youth, teens and young adults alike, are living through what professionals are calling a mental health crisis: changing parenting styles, pandemic isolation, clout chasing on social media, climate change, political unrest, and economic instability all appear to feed into it.

Available June 14th, In Our Heads, a new TVO Today podcast, examines the perfect storm surrounding today's youth and how people are weathering it. Is this crisis unique to the current generation's coming of age? Or are we finally acknowledging mental health in more nuanced ways? What's going on inside the minds of teens and people in their 20s facing these mental health struggles? Why do Ontario's systems of health care and mental health resources often feel inadequate? What can be done to solve the issue? What is being done?

To find out, subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

In collaboration with the reporters behind the Investigative Journalism Bureau and Toronto Star series, Generation Distress, In Our Heads offers valuable insights and actionable takeaways to shed light on this urgent public- health issue for those experiencing challenges, parents and educators trying to understand the situation, and those interested in how policy shifts and community-based care can shape tomorrow.

Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canadian youth are experiencing a mental health crisis. In fact, one in five are struggling with their mental health. But what does a "mental health crisis" even mean? Especially for children, teens, and post-secondary students just entering the world after being isolated for years when the pandemic forced lockdowns and online education.

Between shifting parenting styles, climate change, pandemic isolation, political unrest, economic instability, and clout chasing on social media, unprecedented times are taking a serious toll on everyone, but especially on youth mental health.

When the Investigative Journalism Bureau interviewed 152 young people who self-identified as having mental health struggles, they found that 90 per cent were living with anxiety, 80 per cent were living with depression, 62 per cent considered quitting school, and 48 per cent contemplated suicide.

How did we get here?

Host Tiffany Lam unpacks what's happening inside the minds of young adults grappling with their mental health and explores the potential causes of this crisis and how support systems have responded so far.

Read the transcript of the episode here: https://www.tvo.org/article/what-do-we-mean-by-mental-health-crisis

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If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support:

Wellness Together Canada

https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA

To connect with a mental health professional one-on-one:

• call 1-888-668-6810 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth
• call 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 741741 for adults

Kids Help Phone

Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

The Government of Ontario’s Mental Health Support Resources

https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support

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Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Ontario: https://www.tvo.org/

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the fall of 2022, the University of Toronto announced a shift in their approach to mental health care. After a string of student suicides, the university finally acknowledged their student mental health supports and resources needed to change. But how does this approach change the status quo of long wait times and unresponsive administration? How does it address the academic pressure students face, especially as students return to in-person learning after three years of isolation and virtual learning? And how are students responding to these new efforts?

This episode explores the biggest mental health concerns for college and university students, and what campus mental health care systems and resources can do about it. It also explores the vital role academic institutions and schools play in student well-being, how and why they've been falling short for years, and their plans to improve.

As a case study, host Tiffany Lam reports on what the University of Toronto is doing to address the issue of student mental health, how other post-secondary institutions compare, and how chasing prestige and future opportunities impact emerging adults today.

Read the transcript for the episode here: https://www.tvo.org/article/the-mental-health-cost-of-success-at-post-secondary-school

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If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support:

Wellness Together Canada

https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA

To connect with a mental health professional one-on-one:

• call 1-888-668-6810 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth
• call 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 741741 for adults

Kids Help Phone

Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

The Government of Ontario’s Mental Health Support Resources

https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support

--

Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Ontario: https://www.tvo.org/

Listen to other TVO podcasts: https://www.tvo.org/podcasts

Follow TVO on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearetvo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tvo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TVO

Subscribe to TVO Media Education Group newsletters: https://www.tvo.org/newsletters

Get the TVO Today app:

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tvo-today/id1616182112

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tvo.tvomediaapp&pli=1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the face of long wait times for mental-health resources and treatment, one youth-led community initiative called ACCESS Open Minds helped to pave the way to fill the gaps in youth-mental-health care and inspired Ontario's government to try out their model.

Host Tiffany Lam reports on how this youth-led initiative approached treating the crisis, whether Ontario's adoption of this model has been successful, and researchers' recommendations for how to build up Ontario's mental-health-care system. Considering social determinants of health, improving data collection, and revising how the province funds services could save lives and reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits.

This episode of In Our Heads explores the reimagination of Ontario's mental-health-care system and the role grassroots organizations play in the fight against the youth-mental-health crisis. How have community-led organizations filled the gaps in mental-health care?

Read the transcript here: https://www.tvo.org/article/how-this-model-reimagines-mental-health-care-for-youth

**

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If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support:

Wellness Together Canada

https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA

To connect with a mental health professional one-on-one:

• call 1-888-668-6810 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth
• call 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 741741 for adults

Kids Help Phone

Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

The Government of Ontario’s Mental Health Support Resources

https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support

--

Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Ontario: https://www.tvo.org/

Listen to other TVO podcasts: https://www.tvo.org/podcasts

Follow TVO on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearetvo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tvo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TVO

Subscribe to TVO Media Education Group newsletters: https://www.tvo.org/newsletters

Get the TVO Today app:

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tvo-today/id1616182112

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tvo.tvomediaapp&pli=1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Youth antidepressant prescriptions have skyrocketed and it's revealing some important issues about the mental-health-care system in Ontario.

Max's family has questions about the risks of these antidepressants for young people. Max was 19 years old when he first received a prescription for his mental health. A month later, Max ended his life. Now, his family wants to know more about the threshold to be prescribed an antidepressant.   

In Ontario's mental-health crisis, the number of young people prescribed antidepressants jumped by 224 per cent between 2009 and 2019. Host Tiffany Lam digs into the use of prescription medication in mental-health care for youth struggling with anxiety, depression, and other mental-health issues, and where the trend is now.

What should families look out for if a loved one starts this kind of treatment? What do latest trends signal more broadly? What happens when we rely too much on medications to treat youth-mental-health problems? What are the side effects? How will pharmaceutical solutions to mental-health challenges change in the future?

This episode of In Our Heads explores studies of psychiatric medications, how the brain reacts to them and the future of pharmaceutical mental-health treatment.

Read the transcript: https://www.tvo.org/article/how-and-when-should-teens-be-prescribed-antidepressants

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If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support:

Wellness Together Canada

https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA

To connect with a mental health professional one-on-one:

• call 1-888-668-6810 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth
• call 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 741741 for adults

Kids Help Phone

Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

The Government of Ontario’s Mental Health Support Resources

https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support

--

Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Ontario: https://www.tvo.org/

Listen to other TVO podcasts: https://www.tvo.org/podcasts

Follow TVO on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearetvo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tvo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TVO

Subscribe to TVO Media Education Group newsletters: https://www.tvo.org/newsletters

Get the TVO Today app:

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tvo-today/id1616182112

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tvo.tvomediaapp&pli=1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Online therapy apps have become a popular solution to mental-health care, but can they replace the traditional visit to a therapist's office?

At the height of the pandemic, the Government of Ontario thought that an app for therapy could be solution to help people struggling through the mental-health crisis - but were they too quick to inject $1-million a month into MindBeacon? Two years later, tens of thousands of users were left without access to online counselling as the government pulled the majority of its financial support from the program.

Why did the government invest so much money in the program only to take it away? What does it mean if young people lean on their phones to feel better? How can youth know where to turn for trusted sources on mental- health advice when there is so much competing online content promising to empower consumers? (Read: therapy TikTok and mental-health Instagram)

How do we navigate the world of online mental health?

Host Tiffany Lam reports on online mental health for youth, including why the province spent so much money on an app that ended up being defunded two years later, the changes one researcher proposes to strengthen online solutions for digital health care, and speaks with one therapist about how her content on TikTok is just as important as other digital solutions.

Read the transcript here: https://www.tvo.org/article/what-happens-when-your-therapist-is-an-app

***

If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support:

Wellness Together Canada

https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA

To connect with a mental health professional one-on-one:

• call 1-888-668-6810 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth
• call 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 741741 for adults

Kids Help Phone

Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

The Government of Ontario’s Mental Health Support Resources

https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support

--

Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Ontario: https://www.tvo.org/

Listen to other TVO podcasts: https://www.tvo.org/podcasts

Follow TVO on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearetvo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tvo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TVO

Subscribe to TVO Media Education Group newsletters: https://www.tvo.org/newsletters

Get the TVO Today app:

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tvo-today/id1616182112

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tvo.tvomediaapp&p

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reconnecting with their roots has proven to be most transformative for Indigenous youth struggling with mental health - so what would land-based mental health and addictions treatment look like?

Mental-health systems often try to treat patients with the same techniques. However, not all strategies work for everyone. This is where we find land-based treatment, an Indigenous approach to mental health, unlike what is generally prescribed to people in need. Land-based treatment, stemming from traditional knowledge, focuses on the power of nature to heal and re-centre an individual.

How does it work? What can Indigenous concepts of wellness teach us about healing? What does success mean for youth coming out the other side of mental-health challenges? And why would some communities benefit from something different than the Western approach to mental-health treatment?

In the final episode of “In Our Heads,” host Tiffany Lam reports on how cultural competence in mental-health care can affect health outcomes. The episode features a graduate from Gwekwaadziwin Miikan on Manitoulin Island, a publicly funded, land-based mental health and addiction program for young adults between the ages of 19 and 29.

Read the transcript here: https://www.tvo.org/article/how-to-heal-with-the-land

***

If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support:

Wellness Together Canada

https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA

To connect with a mental health professional one-on-one:

• call 1-888-668-6810 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth
• call 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 741741 for adults

Kids Help Phone

Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

The Government of Ontario’s Mental Health Support Resources

https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support

--

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Ontario: https://www.tvo.org/

Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give

Listen to other TVO podcasts: https://www.tvo.org/podcasts

Follow TVO on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearetvo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tvo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TVO

Subscribe to TVO Media Education Group newsletters: https://www.tvo.org/newsletters

Get the TVO Today app:

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tvo-today/id1616182112

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tvo.tvomediaapp&p

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.