A wellness centre in New Brunswick is making a difference in the mental well-being of youth in the province.
The Atlantic Wellness Community Centre in Riverview provides professional counselling to those between the ages of 12-21. The centre is a registered charity that offers services at no charge.
Since April 2012, more than 650 people have visited the centre to take advantage of its programs.
The centre's executive director, Leslie Smyth, says 12-21 can be a critical time when it comes to mental health.
“A lot of symptoms associated with mental illness start to present themselves at that age, when kids are young and they're hitting the age 10, 11, 12, and when they hit that age we start to see a lot of those symptoms come out and then we extended that age to 21 in order to capture the young adults that are transitioning,” says Smyth.
Kevin Steen turned to the Atlantic Wellness Community Centre after his daughter began her first year of middle school this past September.
“Things were going well, and very quickly, things got bad, to the point where she's not in school most days,” says Steen.
The family tried finding help through other channels, before finally getting the assistance they needed at the Atlantic Wellness Community Centre.
Waiting lists and a lack of funding are two of the biggest roadblocks when it comes to providing mental health care, however, the people behind the Atlantic Wellness Centre got a big boost when they received a Bell Let's Talk grant last October.
“The Bell Let's Talk grant allowed us to increase our counselling hours to an additional 750 hours, which is enormous and such a huge help for us, that's going to allow us to serve 75 youth,” says Danielle Whalen, a clinical therapist at the Atlantic Wellness Community Centre.
Whalen says she is pleased to see the change in attitude that has begun to take place in regards to mental illness.
“I definitely see a move towards that stigma becoming less and less, and people are more open to talking about mental illness,” says Whalen.
Steen says the response his wife got from a recent social media post is proof of the progress being made.
“My wife made a post on Facebook about Bell Let's Talk and the experience we've had with our daughter and the response, incredible,” says Steen.
In addition to helping to end the stigma, the centre has another goal - trying to increase the services available and shrink a growing wait-list.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Cami Kepke
