The MHP-IF is a national program that seeks to learn about promising approaches for advancing mental health promotion among young Canadians, with an emphasis on increasing health equity. The MHP-IF is a 10-year investment starting in late 2019. A first phase is focused on the design, development, delivery and initial testing of project interventions, partnership development, and creating conditions for long-term success, such as broader implementation and scale up, as appropriate.
Twenty projects are currently funded. These projects are diverse, including the following characteristics:
- happening in 140 sites across 11 provinces and territories
- engaging Indigenous, newcomer, refugee, immigrant, transgender and other groups
- spanning infants, early years, school-aged children and youth, and youth in transition years
- working with and for parents, other caregivers, families, service providers, children and youth, educators
- addressing many determinants of mental health, including social support networks and environments, cultural identity, healthy child development, gender identities, social-emotional learning, healthy relationships, coping skills, pro-social behaviours
- using different approaches, such as trauma-informed, strengths-based, arts-based, land-based, culturally safe, participatory, Indigenous perspectives
- led by a mix of universities, community organizations and national organizations and networks
All projects are under development in some way, even though some are new, some are building on existing initiatives, and implementation is on small through large scales. What is under development for many projects is to adapt existing initiatives for different settings and populations.
Update, June 2020: MHP-IF project funding agreements were confirmed just before pandemic conditions escalated in Canada. In response to the pandemic, projects are adapting their plans and activities. Below is a list of some main adaptations. Exploring virtual delivery of individual and group sessions for children, youth, caregivers Moving to online ways of working more generally Using non-virtual and physically distant youth engagement Re-directing activities for urgent COVID-related needs (e.g., providing food for vulnerable youth, online mental health services, food security initiatives) Focusing on administrative and program development and implementation planning tasks (e.g., curriculum development, facilitator guides, revised ethics applications) Initiating or supporting COVID-related research Preparing intervention sites (e.g., childcare settings) for re-openings In three projects, postponing all or parts of activities until in-person gatherings are possible
Click on the tiles below to learn more about each project. You can also search by keyword. Try keywords like Indigenous, early years, co-design, policy, trauma, newcomer, youth-led, or others from the project summary points above. We’ll build a more complete list of keywords with projects over time.
