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By Veronica Beltran

decrease youth

Foundry says they’ve seen decrease in youth participation amidst pandemic

Aug 28, 2020 | 12:25 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–A national survey conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found a spike in anxiety, binge drinking, depression, and feeling lonely since the start of the pandemic.

The survey saw the highest increase in those ages 18-39, and although that may be the case, Foundry Prince George says that they have actually seen a bit of a decrease in youth participation since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Looking at the three months prior to the pandemic and then the last three months, we’ve had about 68 per cent average participation compared to those pre-COVID months.”–Melissa Cailleaux, Director Community Health Programs, YMCA Northern BC/ Foundry Prince George

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According to Cailleaux there are several reasons Foundry has seen a decrease in participation, such as youth putting off their needs due to being home more, the lack of in-person programs provided by the organization and the decrease in referrals from schools due to them closing in-class teaching at the end of the 2020 school year.

“We know that the need for mental health supports has probably increased,” said Cailleaux. “Foundry…on a provincial level…scaled up planned delivery of virtual services, significantly in response to the pandemic. It was already identified as a need to support youth from across the province to be able to access counselling by phone, or video chat…and they scaled that up really quickly in response to the pandemic and so that has definitely offered youth from Prince George, and beyond another option.” Youth looking for mental health supports can click here for more FoundryBC supports.