Mental Health Findings
Halton Youth Impact Survey Results
What is the state of youth mental health in Halton and what can be done to improve the mental health of young people?
Life satisfaction
On a scale of 0 to 10, a rating of 8 or higher was considered high. In Halton, 32% of youth reported high levels of life satisfaction.
Self-Esteem
High Personal Power
Newcomer youth who had been living in Canada for five years or less were more likely to have a high Personal Power score, compared to those who were born in Canada. Those that rated their mental health as very good or excellent were also more likely to have high Personal Power.
Diagnosed mental health disorders
Youth in the 16 to 18 age range (compared to youth in the 13 to 15 age range), girls and nonbinary youth (as compared to boys), and youth who did not rate their mental health as very good or excellent were more likely to report having a diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder. Youth identifying as Indigenous were also more likely to report having a diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder. Immigrant youth were less likely to report a mental health diagnosis, independently of their age, gender, or time living in Canada.
While the survey did not include a full questionnaire on symptoms that could be indicative of a mental health diagnosis, youth did report symptoms they experienced in their daily lives.
Independently of their gender and age, youth with a diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder or who did not rate their mental health as very good or excellent were more likely to mention at least one symptom. Excluding youth with a diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder, 20% of the youth with no mental health diagnosis reported experiencing at least one of those symptoms about every day.
Stress
Perception of quality and accessibility of mental health services
Young people living in Halton Hills were less likely to rate the quality or accessibility of services as very good or excellent, compared to the other three municipalities
Note: The ratings on perceived quality and accessibility of mental health services cannot be linked to service use, as this survey did not measure previous use of mental health services or the types of mental health services they may or may not have used. This indicator provides insight into how easy or difficult youth believe it may be to access high-quality mental health care.
Limitations
- These findings cover only responses of youth in the 13-18 age range
- Open invitation sampling strategy (non-probabilistic)
- Sample is not necessarily representative of all children and youth living in Halton.
- It is not possible to determine a response rate.
- However, considering the geographic coverage and the size of the final sample, it’s fair to assume that we have a reasonably good cross-section of children and youth living in Halton.
- A higher degree of diversity within this sample calls for caution when interpreting overall ratios. For more details on the composition of the sample see the sociodemographic table
- The data are meant to provide a snapshot of youth wellbeing during COVID, and caution should be used when comparing across time.
- While each indicator is important, using multiple indicators as evidence of strengths and needs provides a more comprehensive representation
- This is a self-report survey and several types of response bias have been identified related to self-report surveys. Use caution when interpreting the findings