Ontario colleges face mental-health crisis

Children’s mental health needs increased funding, program changes, groups urge, May 1

Improving the programs and services for students with mentalhealth challenges is one of today’s most pressing issues.

At Ontario’s colleges, the number of students with mental-health issues has increased 110 per cent over the past five years. Growing numbers of students have multiple challenges, which creates even more pressure to enhance the supports for students.

Ensuring there are strong programs and services to help these students must be a priority. One important step would be to increase the funding for supports at colleges to levels that more closely align with the funding provided to high schools. Linda Franklin, president and CEO, Colleges Ontario