N.S. spending $3.2M to improve youth access to mental health, addiction support

Nova Scotia is spending $3.2 million to provide young Nova Scotians and their families with easier access to mental health and addiction support.

The funding, announced Thursday, will help with eight new integrated youth services (IYS) sites across the province. There has been one in Eskasoni since 2016.

The sites will bring community-based services for youth ages 12 to 25.

According to a news release, support will range from mental health services, such as counselling and peer support, to social services, such as housing and income assistance.

The province plans to open the first site by March 31, 2024, and seven more are set to open by March 31, 2027. There will be two in each of the province's four health zones.

"These are low-barrier access within the community, so you don't need an appointment, for an example. You just show up to the facility, there's no consultation, no referral necessary," Brian Comer, the minister responsible for the Office of Addictions and Mental Health, told reporters.

The sites will differ from what the province already provides, Comer said, by offering resumé writing skills, peer-to-peer supports, and "a number of variety of interventions that aren't offered in our traditional health-care system."

He said the project will take four years to complete because the project is a "heavy lift."

"I'll certainly do everything in my capacity to make it happen as soon as possible. The timeline is certainly something I'll keep a very close eye on," he said. 

The sites will be selected and announced in late 2023.

According to the release, community, youth and caregiver input sessions will be essential in the site designs.

A team from IWK Health's mental health and addictions program will lead the project, and will soon begin community engagement sessions. The sessions will provide information on the model and how the site locations will be determined.

Daphne Hutt-MacLeod, the director of integrated youth services for Nova Scotia with IWK Health, said the goal of the sessions is to provide information and learn how to meet the needs of each community. 

"We're newly starting out and while integrated youth services are up and operational in some other provinces, we need to be able to look at their successes, look at their challenges, then bring those pieces of information to the population of youth, caregivers and communities in Nova Scotia," she told CBC in an interview. 

The IYS model is found in five Canadian provinces, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.

The project is a dream come true for Hutt-MacLeod.

"I've waited 30 years of my professional career for something like this to occur," she said. 

Provincial funding is making the project possible, she said. 

According to IWK Health Centre's website, charitable foundations and other partners will also fund the project.