General | Alberta | British Columbia | Ontario | Prince Edward Island
General
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) - COVID-19 mental health resources
These COVID-19 resources were created to help parents and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. These resources provide parents with the framework to talk about the impact of the pandemic on mental health, anxieties about returning to school, and healthy coping mechanisms. CAMH also offers another COVID-19 resource, although not youth specific, that covers topics including stress, anxiety, loss of a loved one, and isolation. Need to learn about mental health? Check out the Mental Health 101 tutorials.
Health Canada - Wellness Together Canada
Wellness Together Canada was created in response to an unprecedented rise in mental health and substance use concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a free, 24/7 support portal in English and French for everyone in Canada to use. The website features self-assessment activities, information, tips, self-guided tools, and games to help support youth mental health. Youth can also benefit from free support sessions with a professional counselor over the phone.
Jack.org - COVID-19 Youth Mental Health Resource Hub
This Resource Hub provides educators and parents with resources to share with youth to help them take care of their mental health. Resources include educational social media posts, educational pdfs for download, and other online resources for students to cope with mental health challenges, including the ones imposed by the pandemic, while also building personal skills.
Mental Health Commission of Canada - Mental Health First Aid
Mental Health First Aid offers virtual courses, for a fee, to adults interacting with youth. These courses equip learners with knowledge to help youth who might be developing a mental health problem, experiencing a mental health crisis, or a worsening of their mental health. Other resources provided include the lockdown life report (pdf) that outlines the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on youth in Canada and provides recommendations for programming and policy to improve youth mental health. Additionally, the guide to student mental health during COVID-19 (Pdf) features signs of mental health challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, tips to self-care, and places to find help.
Mindyourmind is a free, online platform that aims to bring mental health, wellness, engagement, and technology together. Information is provided on a variety of wellness topics (i.e., positivity, self-care, skill building) and illness topics (i.e., mood, anxiety, other disorders). On the top menu, multiple desktop and mobile tools can be selected, presenting students with a range of activities designed to help them cope, de-stress, and think about their future plan for wellbeing.
Pan-Canadian Joint Consortium for School Health (JCSH)
The JCSH actively works to combine the health and education systems of Canada to promote a comprehensive approach to the wellness and success of all students across the country. They provide a variety of resources for students, parents, educators, and school administrators, including the Schools as a Setting for Promoting Positive Mental Health: Better Practices and Perspectives report (Pdf) which establishes guidelines for better mental health practices within a comprehensive school framework.
Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada – teachresiliency
Teachresiliency is an online portal and community of practice that offers teachers simple-to-use strategies and tools to assess resilience needs and provide resources to promote and enhance teacher and student mental health. In addition, PHE Canada has created a large range of emotional wellbeing education activities with free at-school and at-home worksheets for students grade 7 to 12.
Teach Mental Health - Teach Mental Health Literacy
Teach Mental Health Literacy is a free online course that covers the foundation for mental health promotion, prevention and care and can be developed through classroom-based curriculum implementation to improve mental health related outcomes for students and their teachers. In this course, educators will learn how to apply this classroom-ready, web-based, modular mental health curriculum resource as well as develop their own mental health literacy.
We Matter is an Indigenous youth-led and nationally registered organization dedicated to providing Indigenous youth with support, hope and life promotion. Their work started with the We Matter Campaign – a national multi-media campaign in which Indigenous role models, youth, and community members from across Canada submit short videos, written and artistic messages sharing their own experiences of overcoming hardships, and communicating with Indigenous youth that no matter how hopeless life can feel, there is always a way forward. Their toolkits for teachers will help teachers, educators, or school staff use the We Matter videos to talk about hope, healing and mental health with Indigenous youth.
North Star Mental Health acts as an information hub to help guide youth trying to access support for their mental health. They've created Mental Health Resource Guides intended to be distributed through schools to outline community, provincial, and national level resources and services for youth. North Star has also developed a Social Media Suite aimed at making it easier for schools to share and students to receive information about available mental health resources. A Mental Health Database has also been established on Notion to allow youth to adjust their search for mental health resources based on their preferences and needs.
Alberta
Mental Health Literacy is an Alberta-based platform that features a range of mental health literacy information, research, education, and resources. This platform promotes the understanding of mental health, mental disorders, self-harm, stress, stigma, and other topics such as healthy sleep and cannabis. Examples of their resources are COVID-19 tip sheets and a toolbox that allows for key-word searches among a wide range of free resources, reports, and publications with a singular focus on bettering the lives of youth.
British Columbia
Foundry is a British Columbia-based organization that provides youth and young adults aged 12-24 with access to drop-in or scheduled virtual counselling, peer support, support groups, tools, and resources. Foundry’s mental health page focuses on topics such as anxiety, body image and eating, low mood and depression, and stress. All of their services are also available through the Foundry app that is free to download on iOS and Android devices.
Ontario
BounceBack is an Ontario based, free, guided self-help program that is effective in helping people aged 15 and up who are dealing with mild-to-moderate anxiety or depression, stress, irritation, or anger. Individuals will receive support through telephone coaching to overcome these symptoms and build coping skills. BounceBack offers a tailored mood-lifting program that includes workbooks, activities, and videos. BounceBack is not a crisis service or counselling.
Children’s Mental Health Ontario (CMHO)
CMHO provides mental health support to children, youth, and families through providing free mental health services and treatment that they need within a high-performing system. The website features mental health information resources for parents, caregivers, teachers, professionals, and youth. Share the school mental health backpack with parents who are concerned or stressed out about their children going back to school during the pandemic.
Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions
This Institute works to mobilize knowledge across Ontario’s child and youth mental health sectors, closes knowledge gaps with the best available evidence, and trains agencies to make meaningful changes that systematically improve the quality and accessibility of child and youth mental health services in Ontario. Explore their resource hub to find resources designed to help service providers, organizational leaders and system-level decision makers access the best available evidence to inform their work.
School Mental Health Ontario (SMHO)
SMHO provides online, evidence-informed resources for schools, educators, students, families, and school mental health professionals. Navigate their resources by topics (i.e., COVID-19, mood, leading mentally healthy schools) or resource type (i.e., classroom activities, tip sheet, videos). Check out their social-emotional learning posters for secondary schools and understanding the anti-black racism information sheet for appropriate approaches when discussing mental health with minority groups.
Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO)
YWHO is an initiative that aims to improve Ontario’s mental health and addiction services for youth and young adults. Their twenty-seven established wellness hubs/clinics across the province act as a one-stop-shop for youth aged 12 to 25 to address their needs related to mental health, substance use, and other topics at the right time and in the right place. Peer services, outreach, and system navigation services are also included in these hubs.
Prince Edward Island
211-PEI is a navigation service that connects PEI residents with social, community, government, and human services available throughout PEI. Amongst their resources is the addictions and mental health page that links to services such as addiction treatment, mental health treatment, support groups, and supportive housing. In addition, this website provides information and links to 24/7 help lines, specific youth and family addiction services, and adolescent day treatment. These resources can be shared with staff educators, families, and students.