While many might long for those carefree childhood days consumed with climbing trees, getting dirty creating craft masterpieces, playing Sports, or just hanging out with friends, for many young people and their families, this is simply not the case.
A local initiative, AD VOX Wellington, is raising the alarm that youths, more than one might think, are coping with some alarming mental health issues that are not only impacting kids, but also their entire families.
The urgency is real and is backed by some disturbing local statistics. According to Gordon Floyd, CEO of Children’s Mental Health Ontario, there are troubling needs right here in Wellington County, where “one in five youth or children have a mental illness.”
Judy Coulman has volunteered for many years locally, provincially, and nationally, within the complex field of mental health and believes “the issues of children and youth and mental health are totally different.”
In response, a unique program, first developed in Windsor, has been adopted to meet the unique needs of Wellington County.
AD VOX, meaning adding voices together for the cause, is a growing focus that encourages all the people impacted by the world of child and youth mental health and illness to tell their stories and claim their power in the spoken word to inform society and empower their family and those suffering from mental health.
What started with an initial teleconference call with Susan Hess, the founder of a similar program in Windsor, three concerned individuals – Coulman, Lorraine Bruce Allen, and Marg Starzynski – became determined to offer something similar here in Wellington County and have since developed the program into a valuable resource and advocacy initiative committed to raising the profile of children and youth mental health.
While they have been operating just shy of two years, the group is involved in the second Annual National Day for Child and Youth Mental Health this weekend in Toronto (see advertisement on page 5).
Coulman says the issues are “shocking, the pain is intense and the reality for anyone caught in the world of childhood mental illness is, simply, unbelievable.”
Lorraine Bruce Allen also facilitates the area group, Association of Parents Support Groups of Ontario (APSGO), which is designed to support and guide parents of “at risk” youth. Many of these young people have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. She sympathizes with the anguish these parents feel trying to get help for their children and the overwhelming reality facing their family.
“The parent voice is just not heard and parents often feel the dismissive blame of ‘poor parenting’,” Bruce Allen said.
She joined AD VOX because she realized “the only way to meet the needs of our children is to add our voices together – parents, families, service providers, and those from the community.”
Coulman warns, “we are struggling with the reality of the facts that the ‘issues’ of the kids ‘agenda’ in mental health issues have reached a critical point.”
They range from suicide, eating disorders, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and addictions which can significantly impact all parts of life, like school, friendships, family.
Some of the challenges are access to treatment, non-existent services that specialize in youth, and wait lists ranging from five to six months for care.
Coulman said “not addressing these issues is a matter of life and death” and she cites a World Health Organization report that says, “there has been an increase of 500 per cent in adolescent suicide over the past decade.”
Think about the children and youth one encounters on a daily basis and consider this: there is evidence that eating disorders present in itself commonly between the ages of 14 and 25 but as early as ten years old. Shockingly, bi-polar disorder has been identified as young as six years old.
While it is known that early intervention is critical, and that intervention and treatment do work, Children’s Mental Health Ontario claims that only one in six will receive any form of treatment, or intervention.
“Over these years we have all struggled with alerting our communities, getting our voices heard about the growing crisis, and watched in horror when nothing seemed to work,” Coulman said. She added that there is however, a sense of optimism with the growing positive impact of AD VOX.
AD VOX is not only an advocacy group, but also a resource to families who no longer have to suffer alone in silence.
The group says AD VOX Wellington reflects the geographic differences in the county, and “spotlights” the many participants: Family Voice members, Service Provider Voice members, Community Voice members, and the membership of the Community Advisory Committee. There are nearly 60 people actively involved in this project today.
The AD VOX Wellington Project and the members of the Community Advisory Committee welcome everyone to learn more about mental health for kids. Attending the AD VOX Wellington project at the National Mental Health Day in Toronto on May 7 will provide access to experts and helpful information.
For more information on AD VOX call Marg Starzynski at Trellis Mental Health and Developmental Services at 519-821-8089 or mstarzynski@trellis.on.ca. If anyone has a child suffering from mental health issues, the family doctor can be the first line for help.
