Soaring youth-addiction numbers require action from province, advocate says

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This article was published 16/04/2024 (557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth is calling on the provincial government to develop an age-specific strategy to address the skyrocketing number of youths seeking help for addictions and mental-health challenges.

Sherry Gott told a news conference Tuesday that cases in her office involving youths living with addictions jumped from three per cent in 2018 to 22 per cent in 2023.

The five-year period included 56 drug- or alcohol-related deaths. At least one involved a 13-year-old.

Most were young girls and Indigenous youth, who make up more than 80 per cent of the annual cases in Gott’s office, and central and northern Manitoba are especially lacking in resources.

“Children, youth and young adults are increasingly struggling with addiction issues,” Gott said. “Some are losing their lives.”

Prevalent risk factors for youths include household substance use, exposure to family violence and child neglect.

Increased isolation and the closure of resources as a result of COVID-19 and the pandemic’s public health restrictions have also been cited as a factor behind the soaring numbers.

Gott said some cuts prior to the pandemic, including the 2016 shutdown of the Behavioural Health Foundation’s youth addiction supports, have contributed to the overall situation.

Gott’s office has been researching the issue over the past year, including hosting a two-day roundtable this week with support agencies’ front-line staff and community leadership.

Many of the 39 Manitoba youths interviewed last fall as part of the office’s research identified drug use as a coping mechanism to deal with problems in their home lives or communities.

“Most identified wanting help, but didn’t know where to go,” Gott said.

Staff working in child welfare, addictions, education and justice were also surveyed, and fewer than 10 per cent of the 263 professionals who participated felt that existing services in Manitoba are adequate to meet the needs of youth with addictions.

A report detailing the findings will be released later this year.

“We hope that (the province invests) resources to provide the support to the youth,” Gott said.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the data presented by Gott is a product of the former Progressive Conservative government’s ministers who “buried their heads in the sand” on Manitoba’s addiction crisis.

“What we’re seeing now, an increase in youth dealing with addictions, and youth dealing with mental health, is the consequence of government trying to do administration on the cheap, and government when they do not care about their citizens,” she said.

She said the province is considering developing a youth-focused addictions strategy.

“We’re starting to have those discussions. Certainly, we would want to work with (the Manitoba advocate) at addressing some of these issues,” she said.

Community advocate Mitch Bourbonierre, who conducts volunteer walks in several Winnipeg neighbourhoods, said he’s seen the increase in the number of homeless children and young adults suffering from addiction issues.

“It’s all demographics that struggle with this issue, I’m seeing, kids of all backgrounds, Indigenous, non-Indigenous newcomer kids,” he said.

Bourbonierre is hoping for greater investment in “action therapy,” which connects at-risk youth with mentors.

He also pointed to the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, a non-profit residential treatment program for men in Winnipeg, as an example of a necessary support model he’d like to see created for youth.

“To me, that’s the answer. No. 1, give every at-risk child somebody that will be their champion, their protector, their go-to person,” he said. “But even then, some of our kids will need to go to treatment, so a Bruce Oake-type facility would be second on my wish list.”

— With files from Carol Sanders

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca