What is the Youth Wellness Champions Program?

Introducing the Youth Wellness Champions Program

Sometimes we all need a little help from friends. This is especially true for youth in terms of their mental health and well-being. Good mental health is important for everyone, including youth.

Mental health, illness and substance use among youth is a very serious issue. The good news is that peer-support-based interventions such as the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) Youth Wellness Champions (YWC) program help find solutions.

Whether you’re an adult or a youth seeking to pave a brighter future for other young Canadians, our YWC Toolkit will help you be better informed, inspired and most important of all, involved in helping to create supportive, inclusive and resilient communities.

What is the Youth Wellness Champions Program?

The Youth Wellness Champions Program (YWC Program), funded by the Government of Ontario, is an innovative, peer-based program based on youth engagement principles, designed to help youth develop the knowledge and skills they need to cope with mental health and substance use issues.

When it comes to mental illness, youth is a critical period: most people living with a mental illness see their symptoms begin before age 18. There is also a well-established relationship between mental illness and substance use.

Ontario youth are at risk. The mental health problems that adults experience – such as depression and anxiety – affect youth as well. Although it’s easy to discount the emotional struggles youth cope with as “typical teenager issues”, the journey into adulthood poses unique, complex pressures.

For the last three decades, the mental health needs of Ontario’s children and youth have been steadily increasing.

Evidence from the Canadian Mental Health Association paints a stark picture:

There is also a well-established relationship between youth, mental illness and substance use:

Children with mental illness tend to initiate substance use at earlier ages, and are more likely to develop problematic substance use than children without these disorders.

And of great concern: More than four out of 10 students report that, in the past year, there was a time they wanted to talk to someone about a mental health problem, but did not know where to turn.

The good news is that early interventions for youth with mental health issues not only improve quality of life, but have potential benefits in terms of health-care system costs.

According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, establishing the foundation for healthy emotional and social development, as well as prevention and early intervention, are key to ensuring the mental wellbeing of every Canadian. Without the right supports, people with mental illness and substance use problems, their caregivers and their families can experience great suffering.

Peer-to-peer programs like YWC are powerful tools that help shifts attitudes from a mental illness focus to a mental health promotion lens. Why? Peer leaders are easier to relate to than adults – they can more easily contextualize messages and expectations for a youth audience. They share important knowledge that can help both youth and adult allies with recognition, support, prevention, early intervention efforts, and (where appropriate) resilience.

The YWC Program is based on an understanding that peer leaders are easier to relate to than adults; they can more easily contextualize messages and expectations to address the needs of their peers. See the YWC Support Pillars section for information about youth engagement principles.

Our approach is multifaceted but straightforward. It uses a peer-led, multi-partner, multi-component youth engagement model, involving local public health units, district school boards and schools to mentor Youth Champions to plan, implement, and evaluate local youth engagement and  health promotion activities within their schools and communities.

Our success hinges on adequate training of both youth and adults at the start of the program to learn about mental health promotion, stigma reduction, substance use prevention, youth facilitation and leadership techniques, and how to work with Youth Champions. Partner collaboration, networking and support and capacity building are all used to create a strong foundation.