My friend Lillian Chyna has been working for years now to get Young Ones up and running. So far she is doing amazing work and on May the 8th there is a fundraiser in the ballroom of the Palais Royale to keep things going.
Young Ones (Youngones.ca) helps to fill a glaring hole in the Canadian health care system. Coverage for mental health under OHIP is minimal and the services that are available are so overloaded that the best most people can do is add their names to a very long waiting list. For a person who is in a crisis situation, being on the list isn’t really terribly helpful.
To make matters worse, mental health issues carry a heavy stigma making it difficult to admit to having a problem. In young people the outward signs of problems are often simply attributed to being ‘young people’.
Young Ones, according to the website:
“Young Ones (Y.O) provides treatment (free therapy) to youth who are coping with mental health issues of any type and also substance use issues between ages 13-24 who cannot afford private pay services and are in financial need (therapeutic services are not covered by OHIP) and/ or cannot be on a wait list) We also provide peer support group led by people who have dealt with and deal with these issues; and provide Education lectures about Mental Health in Universities.”
If you can go, or simply make a donation, it will do a tremendous amount of good for Toronto.
