Strengthening safety nets to improve access to substance use and mental health services to optimize youth-determined health and wellness

Despite an increasing trend in the number of youth with substance use disorders in BC, current data shows that voluntary, community-based, and youth-friendly support services are lacking. My project aims to address this gap by learning from youth who have had their lives impacted by substance use. By engaging with youth as co-researchers in this project, I will better understand their diverse hopes, wishes and ideas for accessible, non-judgmental, and culturally centered substance use and mental health services.

First, I will establish a leadership circle that engages a diverse group of Indigenous, non-Indigenous, immigrant and refugee, 2SLGBTQIA+, and pregnant/parenting youth, who receive(d) services from our local partners, the Foundry Victoria Youth Clinic Society (VYCS) and Surrounded by Cedars Child and Family Services. We will co-create a shared vision for meaningful and accessible substance use and mental health services, grounded in each person’s own experience and recommendations. This vision will be translated into an intervention to pilot, implement, and evaluate at Foundry VYCS and inform later implementation with the Foundry Network in British Columbia.