As researchers interested in the determinants of mental health, we are concerned about the mental health of our young people, and the difficulty for them to access mental health services.
Posted yesterday at 9:00 a.m.
This concern is not new. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, many young people suffered from mental health issues and needed help. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24, and it is disturbing to note that the number of young girls taking their own lives has increased significantly between 1981 and 2017 in Canada.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and especially since this situation continues today, the mental health of our young people has deteriorated and their ability to adapt is eroded. They need help more than ever.
In the Longitudinal Study of Child Development in Quebec, conducted by the Quebec Institute of Statistics, we measured depressive and anxiety symptoms in 2018, summer 2020, and winter 2021. 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic ended, these young adults were resilient; we did not observe a marked change in their mental health between 2018 and 2020. However, in the winter of 2021, after a year of the pandemic, we observed a general increase in psychological distress among young people.
What is worrying is that the proportion of young people with severe depressive symptoms has increased from 6% in 2018 to 8% in 2020, then to 10% in 2021.
For severe anxiety symptoms, the proportion increased from 5% in 2018 and 2020 to 9% in 2021, i.e. rates that almost doubled over a short period.
All indicators point in the same direction. There is an increased need for mental health services in Quebec.
Risk period
Previous studies show that the transition to adulthood is a period of risk for the emergence of mental health disorders. Since March 2020, young people have to adapt to online schooling, an unstable job market, the loss of social ties. These difficulties arise during a pivotal moment in their lives, when their mental health is already fragile.
In order to mitigate, now and in the future, the harmful consequences of the pandemic on the mental health of young people, we must facilitate access to the interventions that are already effective and available in the health network and innovate to offer additional services that meet their needs. Yet access to mental health services is frustratingly slow and complex. In addition, these young people often have insufficient income to use private mental health services.
In particular, there is a crying lack of psychologists in the public network. A shortage documented for several years. The waiting period for a psychological consultation is currently 6 to 24 months. This delay is an eternity when you are young and suffering.
An untreated and persistent mental health problem can prevent young people from completing their studies, working or even establishing a romantic relationship.
Discouragement can set in. Moreover, more than 70% of mental health problems appear before the age of 25.
It is not simply a question of opening positions for psychologists in our institutions, but also of avoiding the current exodus of psychologists to private practices. To achieve this, the government must consult psychologists to create working conditions that allow for the provision of better mental health services to the public. The pandemic has exacerbated many social inequalities within our society. It is important to maintain high-level expertise within our public network. To do this, it is up to the government to give our public network and psychologists the means to offer quality mental health services to the entire population.
We unite our voices with the voices of thousands of other clinicians, researchers and the Coalition of Quebec Public Network Psychologists1 to recall the urgency of investing in mental health, to take care of young people now and to enable them to build a better future. 2
*Co-signers: Dr Amal Abdel-Baki, psychiatrist and full professor in the department of psychiatry, faculty of medicine, University of Montreal and head of the youth mental health continuum at the CHUM; Dr Anthony Gifuni, psychiatrist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and assistant professor (clinical) in the department of psychiatry at McGill University; Sylvana Côté, full professor of public health at the Université de Montréal and researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine research center; Dr Nicholas Chadi, pediatric clinician-researcher specializing in adolescent medicine and drug addiction at CHU Sainte-Justine; Michel Boivin, Full Professor of Psychology at Laval University and Canada Research Chair; Isabelle Ouellet-Morin, Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Montreal and Canada Research Chair on the Developmental Origins of Vulnerability and Resilience; Massimiliano Orri, psychologist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and assistant professor of psychiatry at McGill University; Marie-Hélène Pennestri, psychologist at the Rivière-des-Prairies Mental Health Hospital and assistant professor of counseling psychology at McGill University; Simon Larose, Full Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning Studies at Université Laval; Srividya Iyer, psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at McGill University, researcher at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre; Martin Lepage, James McGill Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University and researcher at the Douglas Research Center, and psychologist at the CIUSSS Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal