Youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities experience higher rates of mental health challenges and face greater barriers to accessing care. Yet, past studies indicate that their voices are rarely heard in mental health policymaking.
Youth and policymakers hoping to address these challenges may wonder:
How can youth safely share lived and living experience in policymaking?
What invisible power dynamics shape whose voices are heard?
What does meaningful engagement look like?
These are just some of the questions explored in the Youth Engagement Guide for Mental Health Policymaking – a resource for youth and policymakers.
CHILD-BRIGHT members team up to co-create the guide
Sakiko Yamaguchi, postdoctoral fellow, and Shafniya Kanagaratnam, youth research partner, first connected through the CHILD-BRIGHT-funded CEE YOU! Project.
In 2024, they teamed up to co-facilitate workshops exploring a key question: How can youth meaningfully engage in mental health policymaking?
They engaged 45 youth from across Canada, including six members from our National Youth Advocacy Council (NYAC).
“Through our CEE YOU! project, we learned some valuable tips for creating a more youth-friendly environment. We started with icebreaker questions and interactive activities, and made sure there were multiple ways for youth to engage – including anonymous options,” said Yamaguchi.
“Shafniya and I shared some initial ideas for designing the workshops, but as we got started, youth expressed interest in helping with the planning too. So, we opened up that opportunity. It became a truly evolving and collaborative process.”
Curious to learn more?
Sakiko and Shafniya sat down with us to reflect on their co-creation process: