Analyzing Mental Health in Canadian Youth Through Sociological Lens

This essay examines the mental health challenges faced by young Canadians through a sociological lens, highlighting the alarmingly high rates of mood and anxiety disorders within the 15-24 age group. It delves into various sociological factors contributing to depression and suicidal tendencies, including socioeconomic status, psychosocial functioning, academic stress, negative social behaviors like bullying, and the impact of social media. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding mental health issues beyond biological factors, considering social determinants such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status. It also underscores the need for improved mental healthcare access, stringent policies, and public awareness campaigns to address stigma and provide support for young individuals struggling with mental health problems in Canada. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Canadian healthcare system's role in providing counseling, psychotherapy, and early intervention are also discussed, advocating for a comprehensive approach to improve mental health care for adolescents and young adults.

Running head: HEALTH STUDIES
Health studies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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An interesting data had been found by the 2012 Canadian Community Health survey
mainly in the category of the mental health. It has been found that adolescents and young adults
belonging to the age cohort of 15 to 24 years have the highest rates of mood as well as anxiety
disorders than all other age groups. Statistics suggest that 7% of them are found to have
depression in the last 12 months. In comparison to them, only 5% of the population had been
found to suffer from depression aged from 25 to 64 and only in 2% of those who are 65 years of
age or older. Severe depression has been found to be associated with suicidal behaviors. One in
five teens reports suicidal ideation in the last 12 months. Researchers are also for the opinion that
suicide is the second leading cause of death among the young Canadians. This accounts for about
almost one quarter of all deaths at ages 15 to 24 (Sunderland & Findlay, 2013). Researchers had
already established the fact that adolescence and early adulthood are critical periods in the
development of mental health over time. They have also suggested that different risk and
protective factors differentially influence this age groups and rates of depression peak during
these ages.
A variety of sociological factors remains associated with depression and suicidal
tendencies in young Canadians. A research article by Grundy et al., (2016) has stated that young
Canadian women are more at higher risk for depression and suicidal ideation. Evidences
collected from journal articles shows strong associations between socioeconomic status,
psychosocial functioning with that of the mental health excessive stress form parents and others
for betterment in academic performance may be one of the factor that leads to development of
the feeling of excessive pressure, stress and thereby depression. Moreover, negative social
behavior like instance, anger, criticism and bullying are also some of the risk factors that the
researchers state to be intricately associated with the development of depression and suicidal

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behavior. Besides the stated factors, smoking is also bi-directionally associated with depression
as it has the potency to create lifelong health risk for the adolescents. Moreover, adolescent
spend a large number of time of the day on social media. This media acts a platform where they
get subjected to cyber bullying and body shaming which impacts young minds extensively.
Moreover, many young adults and adolescents often try to imitate the lives of famous persons
and celebrities or other famous personalities of their colleges, universities and others on social
media. When they fail to achieve the lives of such personalities, they suffer from depression and
low self-esteem that often make them vulnerable to self-harm. Therefore, proper interventions
need to be taken so that such issues can be controlled and quality of lives of such young minds
can be developed (Thoits, 2013).
The sociological perspective of mental health has changed the way an individual views
mental health issue. This perspective has offered new practice frameworks that aid in making
sense of the mental distress and recovery among the adolescents and young adults in Canada in
relation to their social experiences. The concepts of recovery and risk are well understood
through the sociological perspective of mental health. Many cultural and social dimension of
mental health is affecting youths in Canada that draws boundary around the mental illness. Apart
from physical factors, social factors are involved in the progression of mental health issues and
related disorders. The literature has strongly suggested that social determinants of mental health
are greatly focused on many factors that make up the social statuses. The factors like gender,
socio-economic status, race/ethnicity and age greatly affect mental health among individuals.
Low socio-economic status, low level of education and income are some of the factors that have
greatly affected the mental health and not only the biological perspective of mental health. This
perspective has greatly changed my view that consequences of mental health and illness is

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associated with sociology (social causes) including the stress and social statuses. Negative
behaviour from family and peers, academic pressure and bullying, substance abuse and low
socio-economic status causes low esteem are some of the factors that make an individual
subjected to mental illness and not just genetics being the biological factors (Umberson,
Thomeer & Williams, 2013).
Stringent policies and improved access to mental healthcare services are important for
the individuals living with mental health problems in Canada. Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health (CAMH) provide implementation of policies and activities that provide support and effort
made to address discrimination and stigma prevailing due to mental health problems among
adolescents. The Mental health policy should address the healthcare needs of the individuals by
providing them equal access to healthcare services (Cheung, 2016). Canadian healthcare system
should work to provide public coverage for counselling and psychotherapy with use of
technology that can reach vast distances and educate young people about mental health in order
to create awareness. Counselling is important for the individuals and family to provide support,
look for the symptoms, complications, and provide help at the time of need before adverse
situations occur. Moreover, school education should be given to the adolescents and young
adults in school to make them aware and provide quality healthcare services to the individuals in
need. There should be access to publicly funded therapy, education about mental health, early
access to clinical care and providing affordable access to people in need by the Canadian
healthcare system can be helpful in improving mental health care to the adolescents and young
people in Canada (Mulvale et al., 2015).

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References
Cheung, A. (2016). 49.3 Transforming Youth Mental Health Services Through Accelerating The
Adoption Of Integrated Services Hubs To Achieve Value For Youth Experiencing
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Grundy, A., Cotterchio, M., Kirsh, V. A., & Kreiger, N. (2014). Associations between anxiety,
depression, antidepressant medication, obesity and weight gain among Canadian
women. PloS one, 9(6), e99780.
Mulvale, G., Kutcher, S., Fast, M., Winkup, J., Randall, G., Wakefield, P., ... & Abelson, J.
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Thoits, P. A. (2013). Self, identity, stress, and mental health. In Handbook of the sociology of
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Umberson, D., Thomeer, M. B., & Williams, K. (2013). Family status and mental health: Recent
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