My question is for the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. Just last week, one of my constituents from Sarnia–Lambton shared the heartbreak that their family experienced. Their 15-year-old son is no longer able to focus or get out of bed to attend school because of an ongoing mental health challenge he is facing. Anxiety Canada estimates that about 25% of youth will engage in school-refusal behaviour during their schooling years. This behaviour, also known as school avoidance, is related to mental health issues and is not the same as truancy.

All children in our province need accessible and reliable services in order to grow and develop into healthy adults. What is this government doing to improve the mental health of the children and youth of our province?

In Sarnia–Lambton, as the minister said, we are looking forward to the opening of a youth wellness hub, where my granddaughter Janessa has played a major and pivotal role in its design. I look forward to the minister coming down. We’re confident that it will provide much-needed support for children and young people in our community.

Children and youth have a wide variety of needs, depending on their individual circumstances, and some rural and remote areas of our province may not have a youth wellness hub. Children and youth, no matter where they live in our province, deserve access to services and programs that will support their health and well-being.

Speaker, can the associate minister please explain what our government is doing to meet the diverse needs of young people across Ontario?

I’d like to thank the member for Sarnia–Lambton for this very important question. Since 2019 we’ve invested over $130 million in mental health and addiction services for children and youth through the Roadmap to Wellness. Last year, we invested an additional $31 million in annual funding to reduce wait-lists and support the mental health and well-being of children and youth, with another $170 million set to be invested over the next three years through the road map.

More tangibly, something which we’re extremely proud to be supporting are our youth wellness hubs, one of which is slated to open in Sarnia just this spring. To date, we’ve provided funding for 22 youth wellness hubs, all of which provide mental health and addiction supports, primary care and early intervention to those aged 12 to 25 on a walk-in basis.

Mr. Speaker, we’re working every day to make sure that children and youth in the province of Ontario can get the care they need when and where they need it.

The member raises a very important point, which is that it’s crucial to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mental health, particularly when we’re dealing with young people. That is why we’re constantly innovating and finding new ways to treat children and youth and new ways for them to access services—the care that they need.

For example, those with acute needs can access the Step Up Step Down live-in treatment program which helps more kids through levels of intensive treatment as needed. For those who can’t or don’t want to access in-person services, we’ve invested in telehealth options specifically for children and youth, and just last month, I joined Minister Jones at Ontario Shores for the announcement that we are investing a further $4.5 million in the One Stop Talk program, which provides virtual walk-in counselling services for kids across the province.

We’re increasing access to supports, addressing the demand caused by the pandemic, decreasing wait times and improving the quality of care we provide for the children, who are the future.