Held since 2004, the Atlantic Summer Institute on Healthy and Safe Communities (ASI) brings together community groups, researchers, practitioners, educators and government representatives from across Atlantic Canada and beyond. ASI 2020 focused on mental health promotion and was entitled, Upstream Investment in Mental Health Promotion: The Answer to the Mental Health Crisis. The goal was to bring together people who are capable of influencing and implementing changes at the policy and community levels to increase understanding of the importance of infant, child and youth mental health for the whole of society, and foster policy actions to influence upstream investment in support of mental health in the Atlantic region.
The KDE Hub Secretariat attended to connect with others and learn more about the foci of the broader child and youth mental health promotion community. One of the Hub’s commitments is to support existing expertise and leadership in the field; the ASI was one way to connect with that expertise. KDE Hub Secretariat members focused on 1) learnings of relevance to the Hub’s activities and project supports, 2) understanding the child and youth mental health system (in Atlantic Canada) and considering ways to engage with it, and 3) potential roles for the MHP-IF and the KDE Hub in system activation.