Ontario Expanding Mental Health Services for Children and Youth

Through this government’s Roadmap to Wellness, this government is focused on fixing our province’s complicated and disjointed mental health and addictions care system once and for all.

As part of that plan, Ontario is making it easier and more convenient for children and youth in every corner of the province to access mental health care by investing $4.75 million to expand “One Stop Talk”, a virtual walk-in program that provides access to mental health counselling by phone, video, text and chat.

Since the start of the program in November 2022, One Stop Talk has served more than 1,000 clients and is now being expanded to additional organizations and their waitlisted patients to more conveniently connect them with the mental health support services they need no matter where they live.

In addition, the government is adding eight new Youth Wellness Hubs to the 14 that were created since 2020 to make it easier and faster for youth to connect to primary care, mental health and substance use support, social services and more to youth aged 12 to 25 in a youth-friendly setting.

To date, this government has invested $525 million as part of the Roadmap to Wellness – a comprehensive plan to improve the quality and access to mental health supports while shortening wait times and removing gaps in service.

Learn More: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002662/ontario-expanding-mental-health-services-for-children-and-youth-in-every-corner-of-the-province