B.C. govt. expanding mental health supports to students in Hope, Harrison and Agassiz

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The new teams will connect children, young people and families to counselling, peer and cultural supports, meeting young people where they feel most comfortable: in schools, homes or community settings. Team members may include clinical counsellors connected to schools, youth substance-use clinicians, child and youth mental-health clinicians, Indigenous Elders or workers supporting Indigenous children and youth, as well as family and youth peer supports. Members of these multi-disciplinary teams work together to provide a range of supports, including assessment and screening, consultation and therapeutic services to children up to 19 years old.

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“When a child or youth is struggling with their mental health and with substance use, we know how vital it is to provide them with the supports they need,” said Mitzi Dean, Minister of Children and Family Development. “This is why our government is working together with integrated teams in seven more school districts across our province, to bring even more services to youth where they feel most comfortable: in schools, homes or community settings.”

These seven school districts join Richmond, Coast Mountains (Terrace and Hazelton), Okanagan-Similkameen (Oliver and area), Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows and the Comox Valley, bringing the number with ICY teams to 12. The Province has committed funding to implement teams in 20 school districts by 2024 to be fully operational by 2025.

Integrated Child and Youth teams provide services to all children, youth and families within a school-district boundary, including those attending First-Nations-operated schools, independent schools, francophone schools, alternative schools or those not in school. Children and youth can connect with ICY teams through various points of contact, such as early years services, school staff, primary care, mental-health and substance-use services, Foundry centres and Indigenous-led organizations.