Learning Institute Shareback 2022

Frayme’s 2022 Learning Institute Digital Shareback

The Path to an Exemplary Youth Mental Health System

Overview

Frayme’s 2022 Learning Institute - Future State: The Path to an Exemplary Youth Mental Health System

Frayme’s third annual Learning Institute once again took place virtually from February 23-24, 2022 bringing together national and international partners across diverse disciplines, backgrounds, and experiences to facilitate reflection and information sharing. Most importantly, the LI was an opportunity to come together to amplify system transformation through integrated youth services and care for youth.

This year, we asked participants to ideate on and envision a path to a better system that meets the needs of our youth, families, advocates, service providers and all others involved in the YMHSU sector. Through this theme, our network showcased services and programs that model excellence in engagement, are evidence-based and most importantly, place equity and accessibility at the forefront of design.

We also used this theme to come together and brainstorm ways our system and all those working within it can learn from each other, share resources and step out of duplication and into collaboration. #Frayme2022 provided an opportunity for Frayme’s network of 400+ organizations and 250+ Groundbreakers to come together in the spirit of radical system transformation.

About Frayme

Frayme, hosted at the Institute of Mental Health Research, is a national platform designed to advance youth mental health and substance use practice and make a significant impact on youth well-being in Canada and around the world.

Comprising a network of over 400+ partner organizations including youth, caregivers and advocates with lived expertise, clinicians, researchers, policy makers and service providers, Frayme works to fill critical knowledge gaps via the triangulation of research, practice and lived expertise. By bringing best evidence and knowledge generated by lived and living experience, scientific, research and service provision expertise together, Frayme works with its partners to inform quality improvement in system design and implementation.

Hosts

Once again, #Frayme2022 would not have been possible without the critical support of our co-hosts, moderators, volunteers and partners who came together to lend their time, voices and expertise to the event. Frayme is grateful for all our youth, caregiver and advocate volunteers for guiding our participants through the two days of our Learning Institute:

Co-Hosts:
Seungmyoung Lee
Seungmyoung Lee (she/her) is a 17-year old Youth Changemaker born in South Korea and living in Toronto, Canada. She has a strong passion for children and adolescent health and for investigating the intersections between Psychology and Neuroscience that impact the quality of life of young people through research, advocacy, and professional exposure. Her biggest goals for the near future are to create a worldwide integrated network of neurodiverse children and youths where individuals are empowered to make bold decisions for themselves.

Katelyn Greer
Katelyn (she/her) is a person who has lived experience with mental health and addictions. I found the obstacles these experiences created to be extremely difficult to overcome in my youth. I now use these experiences as a source of strength and perspective in my role as a Youth Peer Support worker. Authentically connecting with people and reducing stigma is my passion. I love bringing humor, fun, and creativity to my work in councils, research, consulting, knowledge translation, and beyond! I am proud to be a part of communities working so hard to reduce these obstacles for other young people who are going through what I once did. There is still a lot of work to be done. I am hopeful we can make the changes needed if we work together!

Youth & Caregiver Moderators:
Co-Moderator Katlyn Kotila
Katlyn Kotila (she/her) is a 22-year-old public speaker, advocate, and queer leader from Sudbury, Ontario. She uses her story as a suicide-loss survivor and a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community to advocate for greater intersectionality and accessibility within the mental health sector, especially among Northern communities. She currently serves on the Youth Advisory Council for the Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions and is the President of Fierté Sudbury Pride. Learn more about Katlyn by visiting her website at katlynkotila.com and connecting with her on social media @katlynkotila.

Co-Moderator Dan Nixon
Dan Nixon (he/him) is a facilitator, host and community creator. Dan has been working in the peer health advocacy space for almost ten years. Dan is currently an Engagement Specialist at Foundry working with the Research, Evaluation and Data teams to build meaningful, authentic and accountable practices into the organization. Dan is adamant pineapple never goes on pizza and believes there is never a wrong time to have some ice cream.

Co-Moderator Jai Turcotte
Jai (he/they) is a German-Canadian living on Coast Salish territory, Vancouver Island. They are a youth advocate, caregiver, person with lived experience, and currently sits on the board of directors for the Federation of BC Youth in Care Networks. As a harm reduction and community care enthusiast, Jai is driven to encourage diversification, accessibility, and decolonization in Canada. He currently works in a clinical mental health setting, and in their volunteer roles he enjoys learning from his unhoused neighbours and community organizers. In their free time, he creates political art, promotes mutual aid efforts, and continues learning American Sign Language.

Co-Moderator Miéchéllè Ma
Miéchéllè (elle/she/ella) immigrant settler on the unceded and stolen lands Tkarón:to ( prononciation dogorondo) Wendats, de la Nation Anichinabés, Haudenosaunees, Mississaugas of the new credits First Nations a cultural transformation consultant, educator, and artologist who centers relational healing, community based creativity for "research", and embodied equity to cultivate collective belonging. trauma-informed, intersectional accountable approach to her values re-alignment work redefined accountable inclusive health to encourage other truth tellers and activists to live as fully well as possible. Their lived experiences in mental health and through generations allows them to work with various folks with disabilities and working and reminding of worldviews integrations in the dialogues of mental health for future generations. In addition, bringing less of one spotlight rather than intersecting identities being in the processes particularly those that are often taken from participating​.

Plenaries

Plenary Session 1: Knowledge Mobilization Powered by Lived Expertise - Learnings from Frayme’s KMb Fellowship

with Ervis Musa, Braeden Levac, Anne Marie Portelli, Angela Xie, Hajar Seiyad, Lauren Iuliani, Katelyn Greer, Yvonne Pelling, Mikaela Basile, Zee Goerzen

Opening Plenary image

Our opening plenary showcased Frayme’s first 10 Knowledge Mobilization Fellows. Throughout three months, 10 Fellows have undergone an intensive knowledge mobilization fellowship to learn and co-create knowledge products to inform the youth mental health and substance use sector, using the power of their lived expertise to fuel the design, development and implementation of their work. Coined the “K Stars”, these brilliant Fellows opened #Frayme2022 with their lived and living expertise at the forefront of their learnings. Hear firsthand from youth & caregiver advocates across Canada about how to meaningfully combine lived expertise, knowledge mobilization and evidence. Spanning topics from Virtual Care Solutions to Integrated Youth Services and Newcomer Youth, the content and learnings shared will be as diverse as our Fellows themselves.

Learn about the impact that the Fellowship Program had on the youth involved, check out the video below:

Plenary Session 2: Creating The Future State: micro-to-macro, local-to-international

with Maddi Mathon (Mutual Minds Peer Support), Peter Cornish (Stepped Care Solutions), Callum Ross (Habitus Collective)

Closing Plenary image

In our closing plenary, we heard from three organizations trailblazing the path to an exemplary youth mental health system. Maddi Mathon of Mutual Minds Peer Support, Peter Cornish of Stepped Care Solutions, and Callum Ross of Habitus Collective span the micro-to-macro gamut- each working to create an effective and equitable system from the local level up to the international. In this plenary, each panelist discussed their organization’s guiding philosophies and highlighted how they are working to create a better youth mental health and substance use system. You will also hear about the importance of collaboration and how we need to work together to create the idealized system. We all have an important role to play in bettering the system and we hope this plenary ignites the changemaker within!

Sessions

Day 1 February 23

Day 2 February 24

CONCURRENT SESSION BLOCK 5A

Presentation 1: Implementation and evaluation of a youth engagement strategy at the Family Navigation Project

Presentation 2: Self Care for Caring Adults

CONCURRENT SESSION BLOCK 5B

Presentation 1: Live demonstration of an interactive online tool to help front-line clinicians understand best practices, including measurement-based care, to support youth as they manage their depression

Presentation 2: Changes in psychological distress and substance use concerns in young people accessing Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario sites for mental health services

CONCURRENT SESSION BLOCK 5C

Presentation 1: HEADSTRONG - personal resilience and community hope through youth action

Presentation 2: Preventative Mental Health Support for Youth during the Pandemic and Beyond: How can we help each other?

Ideathon

Following the success of last year's hackathon, Frayme ran an Ideathon in partnership with mindyourmind with support from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA). Once again, this event was an amazing opportunity for youth, family members, service providers, and other interested individuals to work together and create a solution to a complex issue focused on youth mental health and addiction services. Importantly, the Ideathon was open and free to youth regardless of their registration for the Learning Institute.

The Ideathon consisted of several sessions that took place at the beginning and end of each day of the Learning Institute. mindyourmind was the host and facilitator of these sessions, using their vast experience of co-creation with youth to guide them from ideation through to presentations of their solutions. Youth champions from CCSA were engaged in creating challenge statements and also provide their insights from lived/living experiences. The four challenge statements were:

  1. How might we improve access to mental health and addiction services for rural youth?
  2. How might we address the needs of older youth accessing mental health and addiction services?
  3. How might we increase meaningful youth engagement in mental health and addiction services?
  4. How might we include and prioritize more culturally relevant and holistic services in the mental health and addiction sector?

During the last session, teams were given the opportunity to compete and present their solutions to a panel of judges. Although many individuals participated in one or more of the hackathon sessions, there were 11 individuals across 4 teams who presented to the judges. Here's a summary of their ideas: 

Group #1: How might we improve access to mental health and addiction services for rural youth?

In order to tackle this particular challenge statement, this group focused on bringing overdose prevention sites to rural communities. They emphasized the importance of universal healthcare and how it should include mental health and substance abuse care. This group promoted various advocacy efforts, such as letters to members of Parliament, petitions, and social media campaigns to address their issue.

Group #2: How might we address the needs of older youth accessing mental health and addiction services?

In order to tackle this particular challenge statement, this group chose to create a navigation hub to bridge the gap between youth and adult mental health services. This hub would employ support workers to assist users with navigating the adult system and its services. This feature would be offered 24/7. Mentors who have gone through the transition to adult services would also be available for supportive listening and guidance. The hub would list Canada-wide resources which users could scroll through and learn more about. All of this information would then be emailed to the youth.

This group was named the winner of the Ideathon for their emphasis on accessibility and their unique marketing ideas.

Group #3: How might we increase meaningful youth engagement in mental health and addiction services? 

In order to tackle this particular challenge statement, this group came up with the idea to develop a national youth mental health policy mandating adult ally best practices and authentic youth engagement standards. This toolkit would be created by youth and for youth-serving professionals. The goal of this toolkit is to spark the creation of a youth-led training for adult allies, which in turn will support the long-term goal of the national policy.

Group #4: How might we include and prioritize more culturally relevant and holistic services in the mental health and addiction sector?

In order to tackle this particular challenge statement, this group explored how there is no one solution to this complex and pervasive issue. They proposed several ideas like holistic spaces in hospitals, peer support, and training for professionals, all of which could be incorporated into the mental health and addiction sector.

Explore the insights from each presentation: 

To learn more about the Ideathon, read the mindyourmind blog on it here!

Media Highlights

What's next

BECOME A FRAYME NETWORK MEMBER!

The value of the Frayme network is in the diverse array of service providers, researchers, policymakers, and individuals with lived experience from across Canada sharing knowledge and collaborating to create change in the youth mental health and substance use system. We are happy to help facilitate connections with others in the network as well as share youth initiatives or insights from projects that would benefit the system at large. Please take a moment and formally join the network to feature your organization and projects on the Frayme website and Frayme monthly newsletter, OnPoint.

You can also contact our Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement Lead, Alana Salsberg, to learn more about our network and partnership opportunities.

JOIN GROUNDBREAKERS, FRAYME’S LIVED EXPERTISE NETWORK!

Groundbreakers are experts in their communities, their causes, and their own life experiences. Most of all, they’re experts at being themselves. At Frayme, we think that kind of expertise is just as valuable as that of a researcher or mental healthcare professional. That’s why we have created Canada’s premier leadership network for those who want to contribute to knowledge mobilization and system transformation in the Youth Mental Health and Substance Use sector. Groundbreakers will have the opportunity to inform mental health projects across the country, participate in various learning and granting activities, and share their unique knowledge with Frayme’s unparalleled network of over 400 partner organizations. It’s time to be heard.

Register here

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

If you haven’t already, sign up to our monthly newsletter now to keep up-to-date on all things Frayme related, including new knowledge mobilization products, webinars, events and other opportunities to collaborate with those working within the youth mental health and substance use sector.

GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK

Please help us ensure that Frayme can continue to deliver events that will meet the needs of people working within the youth mental health system such as yourself by completing the Frayme Learning Institute post-event evaluation. It takes less than 5 minutes and your feedback is critical!

Funders

Thank you to our funders for their generous contributions to making this year's Learning Institute possible.

Subscribe to Frayme
Stay up-to-date with Frayme and network opportunities through our newsletter, OnPoint. 

Join our Network
Network partners work alongside Frayme or other network partners in order to transform youth mental health and substance use services in Canada. Access the evidence, resources and tools you need to take action.