Hello TNM friends,
If you didn’t know, Jay and I have been visiting our TNM Groups across the province and learning about all the fantastic work our youth and adult allies are doing to bring change to their community!
Last week, we had the chance to connect with our TNM Group in Sault Ste. Marie with our partner agency Algoma Family Services. It was a unique experience that we’ve experienced once before, where we joined the meeting via Zoom while the TNM Group met in person!
It was such a blast connecting and laughing with the youth and adult allies, learning about some of Starbucks’ new secret menu items and hearing the experiences some of them have had visiting Toronto…. Where folks are not as social as the community in Sault Ste. Marie. I can attest to this as I remember when I visited our TNM Group in Sault Ste. Marie, back in 2020, everyone was very friendly!
After learning more about the community, youth shared all their work at their agency. The youth members have been conducting adult ally interviews and are sitting on a sub-committee with the agency’s board to ensure youth engagement and the youth voice is embedded in all processes. Youth also shared that they are planning to host an Expresso Café for Children’s Mental Health Week, an Open Mic night where their theme will be self-care.
After hearing about the work the youth are doing, the youth shared some of the challenges their community faces when accessing child and youth mental health services. They shared that it has been difficult for transitional-aged youth to understand how to access the adult mental health system and don’t know where to go next or how to navigate the system once they are in. Youth are falling through the cracks and don’t have many resources available. As one youth mentioned, Ontario is not a cookie-cutter. There are many barriers northern communities face when accessing services, such as transportation and cost of services. These barriers lead families to decide who will get a therapist appointment each month. Our child and youth mental health system must move from a state of crisis to one of quality.
It is empowering to know that the young people in our network are leaders of today and tomorrow, and it gives me hope that they are shifting the needle to make the child and youth mental health system a place for all.
Thank you to the youth and adult allies for the warm welcome! Jay and I are looking forward to revisiting everyone in person and trying all the Starbucks secret drink menus 🙂
See you all soon on zoom,
Fizza Abbas, Network Coordinator
