National standards would help track young Canadians' mental health, experts say
CTV
According to experts, Canadians do not have the tools to properly assess the toll that the pandemic has taken on the mental health of children. Creating standards for how mental health is measured could help grasp the scale of the problem, they said.
But experts say we do not have the tools to properly assess the toll that the pandemic has taken on the mental health of Canadian kids. Creating standards for how mental health is measured could help grasp the scale of the problem.
Children's Healthcare Canada, a national organization representing kids' health-care providers, said children's hospitals are reporting higher numbers of kids being admitted for suicide attempts, substance abuse and complex eating disorders.
Young Canadians reached out to Kids Help Phone about 4.6 million times in 2020, up from the 1.9 million connections in 2019, according to a report from the health service for youth.
Keith Dobson, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Calgary, said while certain metrics like hospitalizations and physician contacts are well-recorded, there are no standardized screening tools for mental health assessment in the country.
