February 01, 2021

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Premiers of Canada’s Provinces and Territories,

We are a group of motivated, compassionate, and resourceful young people with diverse lived experiences of marginalization. Long before the pandemic, many of us have faced exclusion, racism, and accessibility barriers when seeking mental health support.

In a review of literature published between 2005 and 2019, Fante-Coleman and Jackson-Best  found that among African immigrant and refugee youth in Canada, 3.8% discussed seeking mental healthcare. Mistrust of approaches, marginalized stigma from healthcare professionals,  discrimination, inability to provide culturally compotent care, and financial challenges were cited as barriers to care to Black youth.
Our current reality has exacerbated the challenges we face.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada reports in their preliminary scan titled “COVID-19 and Mental Health: Policy Responses and Emerging Issues” that while there was a rapid and innovative response in widely disseminating wellness information and transitioning services and supports to a virtual environment, these offerings “are not meeting the needs of some key vulnerable populations.”

During these challenging times, it’s important to recognize and address the disproportionate impact on the mental health of marginalized youth, including members of our Black, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and People of Colour, Newcomers, Refugees, Disability, In and from care, and LGBTQ2S communities. Our response to this predicament is “In This Together”, a campaign by young people, for young people, to let them know that they’re not alone. “In This Together” aims to amplify the voices of young people, raise awareness of service gaps, and connect each other to key support systems. We aim to create conversations between young people and decision makers to inspire action: the establishment of a national post-pandemic mental health recovery plan.

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know that “building back better” is important, but this statement should not be reduced to only the country’s economic recovery—mental health matters, too.

To ensure that mental health is prioritized during and after the pandemic, we make the following recommendations:

- Immediately work towards ensuring access to early intervention and a stepped-care type model for mental health care services as recommended by the CAMH.  
- Immediately establish a Post-Pandemic Mental Health Recovery Plan and ensure the wellbeing of marginalized young people is prioritized.
- Ensure the recovery plan involves collaboration between governments, ministries, and sectors, and places a great priority on funding and supporting grassroots and community-based services.
- Work collaboratively with young people to ensure the plan is informed by and co-created with young people.
- Identify specific, measurable, and achievable goals and a clear outline of actionable steps and timelines to ensure the successful implementation of the recovery plan.

We are ready. Let’s begin this crucial work, together.

Sincerely,
Abrar Mechmechia, In This Together Project Director
info@abrarmh.ca 

For more information on the campaign, please view our Campaign slide deck:
https://tinyurl.com/InThisTogetherSlides

French translation of letter: https://tinyurl.com/InThisTogetherLetterFR

Arabic translation of letter: https://tinyurl.com/InThisTogetherLetterAR