This week, April 1 (12-1 p.m.), the conference will be given by Professor Marie-Claude Geoffroy. The presentation is called “Canadian Youth Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic: What Do We Know? What can we do ?”

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and particularly since this situation continues today, the mental health of our young people has been particularly tested and interventions that can realistically be put in place are necessary. This oral communication has two objectives. The first objective aims to describe the results of studies carried out in the province of Quebec: the Longitudinal Study of the Development of Children of Quebec, the surveillance data on suicide from the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec, as well as data from visits to the emergency room of the CHU Sainte-Justine and from systematic reviews and meta-analyses. These studies assess changes in the mental health of young people before and during the pandemic, such as symptoms of mental disorders and their levels of severity, as well as the use of mental health services (including emergency room visits). The second objective is to describe ‘École à Ciel Ouvert’, a nature-based outdoor education intervention aimed at alleviating mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety) in preadolescents. For 12 weeks the students will go to a park near the school to learn mathematics, science, French, but also strategies promoting well-being and connection with nature such as mindfulness, philosophy and arts. The effectiveness of Open Sky School will be tested through a cluster randomized controlled trial in 2023.

The link to the zoom meeting is: https://chusj.zoom.us/j/89132042640 the secret code is: 250122.