In November 2017, one of my children attempted to take his own life. As with thousands of parents who have experienced a similar situation, I was overcome by a feeling of anger and guilt. What tragedy is the Quebec government waiting for to support the prevention of mental health problems among our young people?
How do we teach our children to better manage their emotions? Two years later, I left a career as a lawyer to found Moozoom, a Netflix-style platform dedicated to teaching social-emotional skills. To date, although Moozoom is deployed in more than 50% of primary schools in Quebec, it is not enough!
And I’m clearly not saying this out of interest for my business: the situation is simply alarming! In 2023, when 25% of hospitalizations among young people aged 5 to 24 are linked to mental health problems, organizations like Kids Help Phone have seen distress calls triple since the COVID pandemic. -19, and in a period where cases of violence in classrooms are reaching a peak, the Quebec government decides to abolish the main, if not the only, budgetary measure dedicated to preventing mental health problems in schools.
Did the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, recently sit down with teachers to understand their daily lives?
In a class of 25 elementary school students, it is not uncommon for half to have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or have behavioral or learning problems. Teachers are exhausted and lack resources to help them with classroom management.
Radio-Canada recently published an article entitled Violence in schools: the ABCs of burn-out, which reported the violence that two teachers experienced in their respective first-year classes, which led them to invoke their right to refuse to teach for safety reasons. On November 13, a 13-year-old student threw herself from the third floor of her school; he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Cases like these are increasing in all schools in Quebec at the moment.
However, in 2019, the Association of Psychiatrists of Quebec called for a mandatory mental health education course in schools. Three years later, coroner Julie-Kim Godin recommended to the Ministry of Education, at the end of public hearings on the subject of suicide, to train school stakeholders (including teachers) to better identify the signs of danger or suicidal risks. “Schools are at the heart of the solutions to help our young people,” she said in an interview given to Montreal Journal on May 20.
It has been scientifically demonstrated that better management of emotions has a positive impact on the phenomena of violence and bullying, improving the school climate, academic performance and dropping out. The Ontario government has just invested $113 million to enable students to acquire skills to better manage stress, in particular, as evidenced by a letter from the Minister of Education addressed to parents.
Without immediate government intervention, the number of “burned out and discouraged” teachers leaving the profession will increase, the mental health of our young people will continue to deteriorate, and situations like those described above will increase.
When can we expect public investment in mental health in Quebec schools, Mr. Minister?