Launching the first... 

The systems that are intended to prevent youth homelessness and help those who are homeless – be it with mental health supports or otherwise, are under-resourced and badly designed. Youth have great difficulty accessing timely and relevant supports – this problem is tragic (suicide and overdose are the two leading causes of death for homeless youth) and expensive with frequent cycling through emergency departments.

Strikingly, to date there has been very little guidance for service providers in the homeless youth sector on how to respond to mental health challenges including addictions. The academic literature is difficult to access and seldom details the approaches studied. Very little is available otherwise. In my 20 years working in this space, I have been asked countless times for suggestions about where guidance can be found on mental health and addictions approaches relevant to homeless youth and community provider contexts.

In response, my close colleagues (Slesnick,Frederick, Karabanow and Gaetz) and I have taken on the task of curating a book written to provide intervention guidance based upon the best available knowledge and evidence in the field. The focus is on mental health and addictions challenges for homeless and street involved youth. We sought out leading practitioners and intervention researchers internationally – asking them to write chapters of clear relevance to direct service providers in the community. It was to be practical and describe approaches that are readily implemented. We had a two stage review – by an internationally recognized academic and by leading practitioners in the field. It tackles topics such as crisis response and specific approaches like DBT skills. It addresses specific populations such as Indigenous, LGBTQ2S, and Black racialized youth. It addresses assessment and evaluation and trauma-informed care frameworks.

There are big strides forward happening in Canada to address the structural barriers and inequities that lead to and perpetuate youth homelessness. While this is happening, however, young people are suffering and dying on Canadian streets – with mental health and addictions challenges closely woven into these preventable losses. This needs to be addressed while we work to end youth homelessness. This book is a part of that effort – responding to the needs of providers working in the field. We will make this book as widely available as possible – both open access and for low cost in print – giving providers more effective tools to address mental health and addiction challenges. We hope that it helps to make a difference – helping young people like the woman that I described above – with more knowledgeable and skillful providers – helping her tap more fully into her already formidable strength and tenacity. This book, and the work surrounding its creation is also thanks in-part to CAMH’s Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition.

I’ll close with a poem that another youth gave to me – a young man with a Benedryl addiction who spent his nights sleeping in unfinished homes at a construction site – scrambling out each day before dawn when the crews arrived.

Download Mental Health & Addiction Interventions for Youth Experiencing Homelessness: Practical Strategies for Front-line Providers for free at: homelesshub.ca/mentalhealthbook