child and youth mental health resources

Mental health self-care tools and resources for children, youth and parents.

Children (0-12)

  • Kelty Mental Health: Infant mental health
    Information and resources on infant mental health (newborns to the age of three).
  • Kids Help Phone
    Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868) is a free, national, bilingual, confidential and anonymous, 24-hour telephone and online counselling service for kids.

Youth and young adults (12-25)

  • Foundry
    Early intervention website for youth and young adults (12-24) that offers quizzes, feedback, information on early signs of mental health challenges and self-care tools.
  • Youth in B.C.
    Online crisis service, where you can chat one-on-one with a trained volunteer from the Crisis Centre.
  • WalkAlong
    Supports youth on their journey to mental wellness with information, tools and resources. Focus is on anxiety and depression.
  • Dealing with Depression
    Online interactive tool for teens who want to build skills to deal with depressed mood.
  • Teen Mental Health
    Website with information on common mental health disorders that affect teens.
  • Open Mind B.C.
    Mental health tools and resources for youth and young adults in B.C.

Resources for alcohol and/or drug use concerns

  • Alcohol and drug information and referral service
    This service is available to people across B.C. needing help with any kind of substance abuse issues 24 hours a day. It provides information and referral to education, prevention and treatment services and regulatory agencies. Toll-Free: 1-800-663-1441 Lower Mainland: 604-660-9382.
  • The Little Black Book
    Online guide to youth resources in Surrey, Langley, Delta, Maple Ridge and White Rock.
  • Youth in B.C.
    Online chat for youth – help and support for youth around substance use .
  • Lower Mainland youth health clinics
    Youth clinics (up to age 24) are free and confidential, and offer counselling and support on all medical, health, sexual and wellness-related issues. No appointment, Care Card (usually) or parental accompaniment required.

Toolkit

  • Healthy living... It’s in everyone
    Toolkit for families was includes information on healthy living for families who have a child or youth with mental health challenges, worksheets and tools, and tips from families across B.C.

Booklets

Support for parents

Youth mental health apps

  • A Simple and Free DBT Skills Diary Card
    If you are practicing dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) skills and want diary card, this app is great for you.
  • Always There
    Provides password-protected space for users to log their feelings and flip through youth-submitted tips, inspirational quotes and jokes aimed at helping youth cope with stress.Users can also connect with a Kids Help Phone counsellor over the phone or through live chat.
  • Booster Buddy
    Manage your personal wellness journey and earn achievements as your sidekick guides you through a series of daily quests designed to establish and sustain positive habits.
  • Deep Sleep
    Provides guided meditations intended to help you overcome insomnia.
  • Emotion Diary
    Record your emotions each day and track changes or patterns over time.
  • Guided Mind
    Guided meditations on a variety of topics dealing with the stresses and challenges of day-to-day life.
  • HealthyMinds
    Problem-solving tool for students to help deal with emotions and cope with the stresses you encounter both on and off campus. The goal: Keeping your mind healthy.
  • iCounsellor – Anxiety
    Portable self-help tool. Also available for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, depression and anger.
  • LifeLine
    Offers access and guidance to support those suffering in crisis and those who have suffered the devastating loss of a loved one from suicide. The app also provides awareness education and prevention strategies to guide people in crisis.
  • Mindfulness Meditation
    This app will help you practice meditation with a series of audios adapted to the different needs of your everyday life.
  • MindShift
    MindShift will help you learn how to relax, develop more helpful ways of thinking, and identify active steps that will help you take charge of your anxiety. This app includes strategies to deal with everyday anxiety, as well as specific tools to tackle test anxiety, perfectionism, social anxiety, performance anxiety, worry, panic & conflict.
  • Moodkit
    Features a range of mood-enhancing activities, helps to identify and change unhealthy thinking, lets you rate and chart mood across time, and helps create journal entries using templates designed to promote well-being.
  • Simply Being
    Guided meditation app. It allows you to choose from five meditation times and gives you to option to listen to the guided meditation with or without music or nature sounds.
  • Stresslr.ca
    A fun online resource for kids ages 9-11 to learn stress management skills, developed by B.C. Children’s Hospital. By learning and developing healthy coping strategies, kids can better manage stress they face today and throughout their lives.
  • SuperBetter
    Helps to achieve your health goals by increasing your personal resilience. Resilience means staying curious, optimistic and motivated even in the face of the toughest challenges.
  • thinkFull
    Helps users manage stress by offering a rich library of life tips to help relieve stress, solve problems and live well. By recording stress levels, the app helps build self-awareness to allow a user to learn when they're most stressed and why. The app also offers personalized suggestions and recognizes long-term patterns in stress.