Mission & Vision
Our Mission
Our mission focuses not only on research to generate new knowledge, but on directly applying such knowledge in the delivery of youth mental health services and providing training to a new generation of clinicians, researchers, and individuals with expertise by lived experience.
Our Vision
Our vision is to empower every family touched by mental illness to become champions of a brighter future for youth mental health.
Why Youth Mental Health?
Young people make up more than a quarter of the global population. Mental illness is the number one health issue facing this demographic.
How many Canadian youth are affected by mental illness?
1.6M Canadian youth affected by mental illness
How many youth are affected worldwide?
1-in-5 youth live with a mental illness worldwide
When do symptoms appear?
75% of adults with mental illness developed symptoms before reaching age 25
The current availability and efficacy of care fall short of meeting the needs of a large number of young people seeking help. Further, our current knowledge about causes, risk factors, and underlying mechanisms is insufficient to prevent mental illnesses outright. Empowering young people to recognize when they need mental health support and ensuring they have prompt access to appropriate care before experiencing life-changing impacts is a top priority.
What is the CEYMH and How Does it Contribute?
The Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health (CEYMH) was established in 2022 through landmark support from the Graham Boeckh Foundation, a leading force in implementing integrated youth services in Canada, and with the help of Dr. Ashok Malla, who imagined the CEYMH’s earliest vision and pioneered the work that laid its foundation.
The CEYMH promotes alliances among researchers and clinical teams, creating a platform for people to exchange ideas that are essential to all our work in youth mental health: service innovation, research, and training. Building on local expertise in youth development, clinical care, and service development (e.g., ACCESS Open Minds, Aire ouverte), the CEYMH focuses on two key actions:
- Developing services with a focus on prevention
- Evaluating and implementing empirically-informed early interventions
Four strategic principles guide us:
- Multi-disciplinary and multi-method research
- Innovation in mental health service delivery
- Training healthcare professionals, scientists, and lived experience experts
- Advocacy and health & social policy
From the molecules that make up everything to the society we live in, our collaborative work extends multiple levels and brings together various domains – neuroscience, epidemiology, behavioural sciences, humanities, linguistics, qualitative methods, and digital technology – in the service of youth mental health.