Youth and Mental Health
Quantative and Qualitative Analyses of Youth Net/Réseau Ado Focus Groups

Executive Summary

Background

Youth Net/Réseau Ado (YN/RA) is a regional bilingual mental health promotion and early intervention program for youth throughout Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. YN/RA was developed in response to the Canadian Youth Mental Health and Illness Survey (CYMHIS), conducted in 1993, which was sponsored by the Canadian Psychiatric Association. The CYMHIS showed that mainstream Canadian youth are at a disturbingly high risk for mental health problems. It also indicated that youth are largely dissatisfied with existing mental health services and that youth are more comfortable interacting among themselves. Another driving force behind the creation of YN/RA was the alarming statistic that suicide is the second most common killer of Canadian youth and that the adolescent age group is the only one in which suicide is on the rise.

YN/RA is a youth-driven organization that has endeavoured to increase awareness and communication among youth; to destigmatize mental illness while promoting good mental health; to facilitate the early identification of mental health concerns and develop connections with a safety net of ‘youth-friendly’ professionals; and to attend to what youth are saying in order to make present mental health services more appropriate and appealing to youth. The primary way in which YN/RA carries out these goals is through the use of focus groups. Our focus groups provide youth with an opportunity to voice their own opinions and ideas on a wide variety of issues ranging from mental illness and everyday stressors to possible changes that could make our current mental health system more youth friendly. As of the summer of 2001, YN/RA has held approximately 1000 focus groups.

Each focus group is a 1.5 hour long discussion with around 8-12 youth. These discussions are facilitated by two young people (aged 18-30) who are trained in group facilitation and crisis intervention. All of the YN/RA facilitators are very unique (as they all come from very different backgrounds) and have different facilitation styles but they all share the same passion of caring for the well-being of youth. Because YN/RA facilitators are all unique, it allows us an opportunity to connect with a wide variety of youth.

At the start of each focus group, the youth are asked to fill out a brief survey which poses different questions related to their own mental health. It is through this survey that facilitators are able to identify any youth who are at risk of suicidal ideation and are in need of ‘youth friendly’ resources. The facilitators are able to find the appropriate resources for each youth through a one-on-one follow up at the end of the focus group.

Once the surveys have been filled out the discussion begins. Each focus group is structured around (but not restricted to) 5 main questions: (1) What is mental health? (2) What is mental illness? (3) What are the different issues that stress you out? (4) How do you cope with these issues? (5) If you were in charge of the system designed to help youth, what changes would you make?

Since its inception in September of 1995 through June 2001, 9563 youth (aged 12-20) have participated in YN/RA focus groups. Forty-six percent of the participants were male and 54% were female. Seventy-five percent of the groups were held with youth in mainstream schools and 25% were held with youth in alternative settings (drop-in centres, alternative education centres, group homes, etc.). Fifty-eight percent of the groups were held in English and 42% were held in French. The following is a summary of both the quantitative and qualitative data that has been collected from all of the YN/RA focus groups.

Synopsis of Quantitative Findings

All of the data for the quantitative findings were taken from the surveys that the youth completed at the beginning of each focus group. The survey is composed of questions regarding the youth’s current mental health state as well as questions relating to their attitudes and behaviours as they relate to mental health. This summary will compare the responses from youth in both mainstream and alternative group settings, as well as differences in sex, language, and age.

Overall, many of the youth that have participated in focus groups are experiencing high levels of both stress and depression. In total, 62.3% of youth reported having a significant amount of stress in their lives and 40.0% of youth are experiencing frequent feelings of depression. However, females experience much more stress than males (71.6% vs. 51.5%), as well as a higher reported rate of depression (48.0% vs. 30.6%) than males. Youth in alternative settings reported significantly higher incidences of both stress (66.8% vs. 60.9%) and depression (44.0 % vs. 38.7%) than youth in mainstream settings. English speaking youth reported higher levels of stress (65.4% vs. 58.1%) than French speaking youth, however Francophones feel depressed more often than Anglophones (43.6% vs. 37.5%).

Although youth appear to be dealing with staggeringly high levels of stress, their coping skills seem to be excellent. Sixty-six percent of all youth reported that they were able to cope with stress very well. The data shows that males seem to be able to cope with stress better than females (75.1% of males reported that they were able to cope well, whereas only 58.5% of females reported the same). Also, 67.1% of youth in mainstream settings reported that they were able to cope with stress well, but only 62.7% of youth in alternative settings reported the same.

Despite their ability to cope with stress, youth have reported an alarmingly high rate of both suicidal ideation and attempted suicide. Twenty five percent of all of the youth who have participated in YN/RA focus groups reported having thoughts about killing themselves at some point in their lives and 11.7% of youth have attempted suicide. Out of all of the females, 31.3% reported having thoughts about killing themselves, and 13.4% of females said that these thoughts had occurred within the last three months. Also, 15.9% of females reported that they had attempted suicide. In contrast, 17.8% of males reported having suicidal ideation, with 7% of males having suicidal thoughts within the last three months. Seven percent of males reported having attempted suicide. Of youth in alternative settings, 34.6% reported that they have thought about suicide, while 15.6% noted that they their suicidal thoughts had occurred within the last three months. Also, 21.7% of non-mainstream youth have attempted suicide in the past. Twenty two percent of youth in mainstream settings reported suicidal ideation and 8.8% of mainstream youth noted that their suicidal thoughts occurred recently. Nine percent of mainstream youth admitted to past suicide attempts. Youth over or equal to the age of 16 reported more suicidal ideation (27.2% vs. 22.6%), and more attempted suicide (13.1% vs. 10.1%) than youth under the age of 16. As well, Anglophones reported a higher proportion of suicide attempts (13.4% vs. 9.5%) in comparison to Francophones.

A surprisingly low number of youth have reported using any mental health services. More females have used mental health services (35.4% vs. 24.9%) than males, and non-mainstream youth have used more of these services (46.7% vs. 25.2%) than mainstream youth. Also, more Anglophones have used mental health services (35.1% vs. 24.2%) than Francophones. Another interesting statistic is that only 15% of youth who had thoughts about suicide consulted a mental health professional. On a related note, only 63.4% of youth who had thoughts about suicide reported telling anyone about these thoughts.

Overall, the YN/RA quantitative findings report a very high rate of distress among youth. Unfortunately, all of these findings have remained relatively constant across the six years that YN/RA has been conducting focus groups. There are tremendous differences between males and females, with females showing a much larger rate of distress than males. Females worry more about both their mental and physical health, engage in more suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, and show higher proportions of stress and depression than males. There are also drastic differences between mainstream and non-mainstream youth that include suicidal ideation and attempts, concern for physical and mental health, and levels of stress and depression. These results show that all youth are incredibly different and this needs to be reflected in the mental health system designed to care for youth.

Synopsis of Qualitative Findings

The following is a summary of some of the thoughts, ideas, opinions and reflections discussed by youth during the focus groups.

In many focus groups the issues of parents (79,8%), stress (77,5%), and how to cope with stress (75,3%) were brought up. Some of the other issues that were often discussed include drugs and alcohol (70,6%), money (54,6%) and suicide (45,6%)

Stress is seemingly a big issue amongst youth. Growing up and facing so many changes creates many stresses. Amongst some of the stressors that youth brought up in the discussions, parents (28,4%) seem to be a very important source of stress. Parents seem to be too controlling and interfering and the pressure they exercice on their children is an important source of stress. School (31,8%) and more particularly teachers, homework are also main stressors in adolescents’ lives..

A significant amount of youth expressed their lack of trust in professional mental health services. Only 30,5% of youth who participated to YN/RA focus groups admitted turning towards the help of mental health professional when needed, whereas the rest seemed to be more comfortable sharing their feelings with close friends. When asked what would be the ideal mental health professional youth answered : someone with positive personality traits (18,5%), who is an active listener (15,9%) and who is understanding (12,7%). Youth also mentioned the need for a more youth friendly environment especially at school. Teachers should be educated towards issues regarding youth and try to be more on their students level.

Youth seems to be asking for a system that is more youth friendly and that doesn’t treat them as children. Youth often bring up the need for a more youth friendly staff (11.5%), for more youth related programs (18,3%) ans for more consideration from adults (26,0%). They also mention the importance of confidentiality and reliability in order for them to start trusting the system already in place for them.

When asked how they cope with stress, surprisingly, the majority of youth seem to deal with it in positive ways ( 50,3 % ) For example, youth will exercice (11.1%), talk to friends (7,6%) or use relaxation techniques such as meditation, sleeping or taking a bath (7,1%) to releive the stress. On the other side, a minority of youth would rather use more negative techniques to cope with stress ( 28,9 % ) like developping unhealthy physical habbits such as not eating or sleeping properly (9,4 %), aggression (6,5%), smoke cigarettes (5,1%), drugs and alcohol (4,5%). The rest of youth deal with stress in more neutral ways (20,9%) like escaping or focusing on other things.

Updates and future directions

Not only is YN/RA continuing to offer focus groups across Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec but also is slowly expanding throughout the country. YN/RA now has 13 satelites across Canada, all working towards the building of a more youth friendly mental health system and overall environment.

In addition to focus groups, YN/RA also provides long-term therapeutic support groups to diverse groups of youth having difficulties.

YN/RA also encourages youth in creating their own mental health promotion and mental illness prevention initiatives. « Healthy Mind and Healthy Body Snow Boarding Project », mountain bike outings, « Pens and Paints », « Youth Fax/Fax Ado » (a short paper written by youth and for youth) are some of the different projects YN/RA has encouraged.

YN/RA has, by listening to what youth have to say, established links between the mental health professionals and youth in order to help build a stronger, more youth friendly environment.

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