Nervous laughter rings out from all corners of the auditorium crowded with 4-year-oldse secondary despite — or perhaps because of — the difficult subject that the facilitators are about to tackle with them. “Today, we’re coming to talk to you about depression, yé! » launch Simon and Séraphin in a falsely enthusiastic tone to lighten the atmosphere.
Simon and Séraphin are animators for the Fondation Jeunes en tête, an organization that has been giving workshops on mental health for more than 20 years in Quebec schools. Today, they are in front of about fifty students from Charles-LeMoyne College, on the South Shore of Montreal. Their goal: to break down taboos and give teenagers tools to spot the signs of depression and encourage them to seek help. With humor and tact, they throw out some figures that make young people react.
“In Quebec, it is estimated that between 5% and 10% of young people will suffer from depression during their adolescence: therefore, between 70 and 140 young people could suffer from depression, right here, at your school” , launches Simon.
“We are not showing you these figures to scare you, but to make you understand that depression is more present around us than we think. This 5% can be people we will meet every day in the hallways, it can be people in our circle of friends and it can be ourselves too. »
However, several of the young people do not dare to speak, says Séraphin, who questions the assembly on the reasons which could push them to remain silent. “Fear of judgement”, immediately answers a young person, provoking several nods and grunts of approval from his comrades. According to official statistics quoted by the Foundation, 75% of young people who suffer from depression do not say so for fear of being judged or rejected.
The delicate question of suicide
The room is starting to get distracted. The students squirm on their benches and whisper among themselves. Facilitators must call for silence to address the delicate issue of suicide. “When we experience depression, we can go so far in our suffering that we begin to see suicide as a way to put an end to it, recalls Séraphin. In truth, we don’t want to die, we want to stop hurting. Except that the suffering we experience distorts reality and prevents us from seeing that there are solutions to get better. But by going to talk about it, by going to consult a health professional, we can get out of it. »
Simon and Séraphin hammer home the message: when we are worried, for ourselves or for a loved one, we must talk about it to a trusted person: a parent, a teacher, a worker.
“But if our friend is not well and he tells us not to talk about it, are we going to betray him if we ask an adult for help?” The teenager’s question goes straight to the point. This is in fact a constant concern among young people, note the facilitators, who include in the workshop a long anecdote evoking a broken wrist during a volleyball match to lead young people to understand that, despite the reluctance of a friend, some situations require professional intervention.
“There’s nothing stopping you from getting resources for your friend,” Simon sums up. It doesn’t have to be behind his back, you can tell him: I’m worried about you, I’ll go see the resources. Either I go alone or you come with me. And I know we can be afraid that our friend will be mad at us, but when the person is better, the chances are pretty strong that they will come and tell you: you did the right thing, thank you. »
Save lives
The bell rings, announcing the end of the workshop. While the young people rush noisily towards the cafeteria, the animators remain available, on the lookout. It is not uncommon for participants to come and ask questions, confide or ask for help.
According to the organization, which has seen nearly 1.3 million young people over the past 20 years, nearly 20,000 young people have chosen to undergo treatment and 2,500 have been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts after the visit of the facilitators. Last year alone, more than 200 young people were followed, 16 of whom were hospitalized.
“According to our statistics, 88% of schools think that we save lives, that’s a big deal! says the executive director of the Fondation Jeunes en tête, Mélanie Boucher. We help them intervene at the right time and catch up with these young people who, otherwise, may unfortunately fall into a loophole in the system. »
In the context of the pandemic, where young people have been put to the test, the demand for the workshops has grown “tremendously” in recent years, explains Ms.me Butcher. It has increased its team of animators, which has increased from 10 to 16, to meet demand. “We would like to do more, but we do with the means we have,” she adds.
She explains this increase in demand by an increase in mental health problems among young people and by a new “pressure” that is put on institutions to act. To this end, she believes that the government does not give enough importance to prevention. His organization, financed entirely by private funds, has also been in discussion for more than five years to obtain “significant support” from the government of François Legault.
“Mental health problems have a direct impact on school perseverance,” recalls Ms.me Butcher. We have to be there and meet the needs of our young people, otherwise we will have a poorly educated society with serious mental health problems. And this is not the future we want for our young people. »