Frederic Lacroix-Couture, The Canadian Press
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MONTREAL — A network of psychosocial support agents will be deployed over the next few months across Quebec to support young people who, despite themselves, play a role of caregiver to a person with mental disorders.
35 young people under the age of 30, hired by community organizations and then trained, equipped and supported, will identify their peers with mental health needs in order to offer them support. They will also carry out awareness-raising activities.
The “Help without filter” project of the associations of the Network Before cracking obtains funding of $ 7.5 million over five years from Quebec, announced Friday by the Minister for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant.
An amount of $1.7 million from the Support for Caregivers organization will also be donated to carry out the initiative.
One in five young people has a parent living with a mental health problem, said the executive director of the Réseau Avant de crack, René Cloutier, at a press conference in Longueuil. And that’s not counting all the others who want to help a friend or spouse who develops a mental health problem.
“Thousands of young caregivers in Quebec need to be identified and supported so that they can live their life as young people as best as possible and preserve their own mental health,” said Mr. Cloutier.
go ahead
Very often, these young people do not recognize themselves as caregivers, pointed out the director general of the Support for caregivers, Guillaume Joseph.
“A project like this makes it possible to reach out to young people to help them find services for people living with mental health problems, but also for those around them who deal with it on a daily basis,” he rejoiced.
“Young people often think they are the only ones going through this. It is not talked about a lot, there is still a lot of stigma, ”added Mr. Cloutier.
The 35 future interveners who will form the network of “Help without filter” could be composed in particular of psychoeducators and social workers.
Among other things, they will visit schools and youth centers, in addition to going through social networks.
“Eventually, we hope that this network will grow. There is a research program associated with the project, which will allow us to monitor its impact. I am quite convinced that the impact will be present,” said Mr. Carmant.
The more young people are made aware of mental health and caregiving issues, the more they will be inclined to speak freely about what they are going through, according to Mr. Cloutier.
“The young people between them will realize that they are not the only ones, and they will help each other. That’s why it’s called Helping Without a Filter. There we must stop talking about health problems while trying to put on makeup, we will talk about it openly, ”he argued.
The spokesperson for the Réseau Avant de crack, the producer and host Jean-Philippe Dion, remembers as a teenager, in the 1990s, the lack of resources and the anguish experienced in the face of his mother’s diagnosis.
“I left home (to go to school) with a heavy heart, not knowing in what state I was going to find my mother when I returned. I had no one to talk to about it, there was no one who could talk to me about it because no one had these notions and the resources in the schools, ”he said at a press conference. .
“I think it is essential what we are announcing today to reach young people, like me, who would have liked to have had help at that time.”
The initiative stems from the 2022-2026 Interdepartmental Mental Health Action Plan, which has a budget of more than $1 billion.
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This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.
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