Coordinating Youth Mental Health Services in Alberta: How Can Government Help?
Abstract
In 2021, the Government of Alberta launched the Child and Youth Well-Being Review and Action Plan (GOA 2021, 2022). Following trends reported elsewhere in the world (Samji et al. 2022), the report confirmed worsening mental health for Albertan youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also raised longer-term health concerns given the critical developmental periods with which Albertan children and youth experienced the pandemic.
Youth in Alberta urgently need timely and appropriate access to mental health services. Emergency department visits for youth experiencing a mental health crisis are becoming increasingly frequent in the province, despite the fact that they often involve long wait times (Arnold et al. 2023). Additionally, Alberta emergency staff admit to being unprepared to manage mental health issues, and these negative patient experiences can prevent youth and their families from using mental health services in the future (Grigat et al. 2020).
The unfortunate reality is that the emergency room might be accessible to youth in crisis in ways that some youth mental health services are not. Community mental health services can play an important role in preventing future crises from taking place, and have been shown to reduce the number of repeat psychiatric-related emergency department visits (Singh et al. 2019; Singh, Kumar, and Gupta 2022). However, these services are siloed across a variety of sectors spanning health, education, social services, and community organizations, and are often difficult for many youths to navigate and access (Wright et al. 2024). Alberta must develop more accessible pathways to accessing critical youth mental health services.