N.B. child advocate says youth mental health a 'genuine crisis'
Kelly Lamrock says results from Statistics Canada report on youth mental health mirror provincial observations
New Brunswick's child and youth advocate says a surge in young people reporting poor mental health, outlined in a recent Statistics Canada report, is being seen in New Brunswick.
Kelly Lamrock said his last state of the child report outlined a spike in children presenting with serious and escalated mental health issues.
Lamrock, speaking on Shift, said he believes there are three main issues contributing to this — the lack of a primary care system for mental health, the lack of timely intervention because there aren't enough trained professionals, and environmental issues, such as social media.
"Those three factors — I think they're all colliding to create a genuine crisis in youth mental health."
The Statistics Canada report, released last week, showed that about one in five youth who felt their mental health was "good" or better in 2019 no longer felt that way in 2023.
It also noted that the rates for girls and boys who said their mental health was "fair" or "poor" in 2019 more than doubled in 2023.
Michael Boyes, a developmental psychologist from the University of Calgary, said the StatsCan numbers are based on the same individuals who were interviewed when they were between the ages of 12 and 17, in 2019, and when they were 16 to 21, in 2023.
"That's telling us that there's something going on, particularly importantly, in the latter half of the teenage years," said Boyes. "We've noticed, over the last 10 years, there's been an alarming increase ... in the level of mental health issues amongst teenagers."
He said the StatsCan data shows there was an additional negative bump as a result of COVID and the period of social isolation that came with that.
Because of this social isolation, Boyes said the social connections that were possible were through social media — which introduced "a number of issues that we're trying to sort out," including intense comparison to peers.
Lamrock said the pandemic exacerbated a trend that was already happening.
"We have tended to steer children away from free exploration and then left them free in a world of completely unregulated content," he said.
"And the pandemic didn't help ... it, frankly, just sped up trends that were happening."
Lamrock said the StatsCan results weren't surprising, and it's clear policymakers are aware of the crisis based on sustained increases to mental health funding.
Earlier in the year, the Department of Education updated its technology policy, Policy 311, to add a section that limits cellphone use in class, at the discretion of the teacher, to educational reasons.
Lamrock said that was a good first step. His office has assembled a team of pediatricians, psychologists, educators and others to develop a set of guidelines on social media access and the right to play, which he said will be published late fall.
But he said there are other things that should be considered going forward, including federal regulations on algorithms and primary care reform.
"Coming up with this idea of what is primary care and mental health, I think, is one of the most important puzzles to try and solve," he said.
"So we've certainly seen policymakers in New Brunswick and elsewhere with a willingness to commit resources.
"Now we all need to discuss and learn and see what the experts tell us in terms of regulating the industry, improving the ability of children to play, and making sure that primary care — and recruiting enough professionals to actually execute a plan — is a priority after the next election."
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With files from Shift