Integrated Child and Youth or ICY teams are intended to connect children, youth and families to counselling, peer and cultural supports — meeting them in their schools, homes or communities.
Teams offering mental-health and substance-use services to children and youth are being expanded to seven more school districts, including Nanaimo-Ladysmith and Port Alberni, Mental Health Minister Jennifer Whiteside announced Thursday.“The point of these teams really is to meet children and youth and families where they are at … where they feel safe and comfortable,” Whiteside said from the Mission Youth Centre.
Team members might include clinical counsellors connected to schools, youth substance-use clinicians, child and youth mental-health clinicians, Indigenous elders or Indigenous support workers, as well as family and peer supports. About 75 per cent of serious mental-health issues emerge before the age of 25, according to the Mental Health and Addictions Ministry. In B.C., nearly 13 per cent of children age four to 18 are affected by mental-health disorders, and 44 per cent of them receive services, it said.
Whiteside said the teams better co-ordinate mental health, wellness and substance-use care in schools and in the community. Whiteside did not fully explain Thursday why there are no teams in south Vancouver Island or if any are planned as the program expands. She said only that the province works closely with school districts to identify their needs and ability to build and implement the teams.
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