Sobeys Inc. & the Sobey Foundation

Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre is partnering with other agencies to establish a much-needed Child & Youth Advocacy Centre. The new centre will support children and youth who have been victims of, or witnesses to abuse, violence and other crimes. Customized services delivered in a safe space will help reduce short- and long-term impacts of the abuse and violence children and youth experience.

Many youth experiencing mental illness do not have timely access to high quality evidence based mental health and addictions services. The Learning Link–a physical and virtual space for clients, families and clinicians to work together–will help address these challenges. The Learning Link will serve as a hub of expertise for Nova Scotian and Maritime mental health clinicians and community partners to enhance knowledge and deliver the best clinical care.

The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation will invest in improving treatment for two critical mental health issues—obesity and eating disorders. The funding will help build the first Center of Excellence in adolescent severe obesity in Quebec and make treatment more accessible. Funding will also enable an investment in the Children’s unique Family Based Therapy which have proven to be very successful in the treatment of eating disorders.

CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation will invest in two mental health initiatives. The first will focus on innovative approaches to safer care for youth with mental health problems—like virtual reality. The second will allow CHU Sainte-Justine to create in-situ meeting rooms, to help supervisors better evaluate and guide training for the next generation of mental health leaders.

CHEO will grow their Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) program to help adolescents dealing with suicidal ideation, self-injury, family conflict and school problems stemming from difficulties regulating their emotions. By expanding and enhancing services, CHEO will be able to care for more children and families ensuring fewer patients reach a crisis stage.

More than 40 percent of children and youth with a physical illness face mental health challenges. To identify potential challenges early, patients with high-risk conditions undergo neuropsychological assessments. SickKids will expand access for this important service, ensuring children and youth don’t miss critical windows of opportunity for early mental health intervention.

More Canadian youth die by suicide than the top 10 fatal diseases in this population combined. A new innovative 6-week psychotherapy program focused on improving family communication, reducing conflict, and increasing coping skills has been developed. In the coming months, the effectiveness of this intervention program will be tested at McMaster Children’s Hospital through a multi-site clinical trial in conjunction with Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and SickKids Foundation.

Psychosis ranks as the third most disabling condition worldwide. Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre is expanding an early identification and intervention program focused on supporting youth with severe mental health issues. This will facilitate more timely detection and proper treatments, significantly reducing the negative risks of early psychosis.

Over the last 20 years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of patients presenting to HSC Winnipeg Children’s Hospital for mental health assessment. About 45% of child and adolescent patients are transported from their rural communities for care, resulting in millions spent on medical transport annually. The hospital will implement a new Urgent Telemental Health Service for children and adolescents in rural Manitoba, bringing care closer to home.

Often, the first contact children and families have with mental health services is in a hospital emergency department (ED).The new Children’s Emergency Department at Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital provides short-stay crisis care for Saskatchewan children and youth experiencing acute mental health challenges. The hospital will create a new Mental Health Intensive Care Room in the Emergency Department to provide a safe, calming environment for children and youth in crisis.

Donor investments are vital in expanding round-the-clock mental health support to children, youth and families. Stollery will be able to create integrated mental health services within the emergency department, boost helpline support to be 24/7, along with  a separate walk-in clinic space to help to increase timely access to an expert team of nurses, social workers, therapists, and child and adolescent psychiatrists.

Inadequate scientific knowledge about paediatric mental health disorders means that many treatments and prevention strategies have not advanced in decades. A new Foundational Discovery Platform will engage hundreds of young people in innovative research aimed at understanding paediatric mental health and improving and creating more effective therapies.  By collecting and analyzing crucial data with a 360-degree view of participants, the initiative will inform and optimize care for children and teens across the country.