When people experience a mental illness, medications are not the only treatment option. Pharmacists and physicians are trained to discuss and offer non-drug treatments as appropriate (e.g. cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, mindfulness, sleep hygiene, light exposure, exercise, diet and lifestyle changes) which can be used before, after, or in combination with medication.  Unfortunately, people’s response to treatment varies for many different reasons and not everyone is able to access and benefit from these treatments.

‘Somatization’ may be an unfamiliar or complex sounding word, but, in fact, it describes a phenomenon that everyone experiences. Somatization is the physical (or body) expression of emotions and stress.  Everyone somatizes; for example, feeling butterflies in your stomach when you are nervous. 

Recently, our wonderful guests for a future podcast episode,   Dr. Ashley Miller and Mary McCracken, were invited to speak at CBC Radio Canada to discuss their experience working with us on our new Where You Are podcast!  

We are seeking feedback from both families and health professionals to help enhance our Healthy Living Toolkits! Whether you've used the toolkits or not, we want to hear from you!

These toolkits provide information, resources and tools to help children and youth with mental health challenges develop healthy living habits. Toolkit topics include healthy eating, physical activity, sleep and stress management. 

BC Children's Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre is excited to launch our podcast: Where You Are!

Taming Worry Dragons is a creative approach to CBT that is designed to help anxious children learn how to cope with their worries. The approach can be adapted by therapists and parents to match the developmental level and interests of the child involved.

Good news!  Resilience, the ability to bounce back from difficult times, is a skill that we can all learn.  There are things that detract from resilience and things that help to build it.  We aren’t given a set dose of it and asked to navigate life with our allotted serving.  Knowing this is a huge reason why I began sharing what I learned from my own parenting journey with others. 

We are very excited to share with you our 2018/2019 Online Annual Report  – it shows our accomplishments and initiatives

The Child, Youth & Reproductive Mental Health programs at BC Children’s Hospital are pleased to announce the launch of the Mental Health Act Video for Youth – Being Certified:  bcyouthmentalhealthact.ca

Tuesday, May 7th is National Child and Youth Mental Health Day! Started by the Institute of Families for Child & Youth Mental Health, this day is about having caring conversations and making connections between children, youth, and caring adults in their lives.