Brings forward best practices for engaging youth and building effective youth-adult partnerships. It looks at ways to support young people as decision makers, provides organizational-assessment tools, and outlines the concrete steps needed to initiate and sustain meaningful youth involvement.

The study presents new analyses of the latest research, surveys and policy initiatives across Canada related to mental health and criminal behaviour among youth and adults.

The Plan supports the Health Action Plan by providing direction and funding over the next three years for strategies to improve access to mental health services for infants, children, youth and their families. The Children’s Mental Health Plan also aligns with the Health Action Plan by addressing the needs of children and youth at risk, which contributes to healthy and safe communities.

This publication brings together available information and data analyses that look at one way of defining positive mental health, how we currently measure it, its role in health, the factors associated with high levels of positive mental health and what strategies are, or may be, effective at promoting mental health at a population level.

The well-being of children is high on the policy agenda across the OECD. But what is the actual state of child well-being today? How much are governments spending on children and are they spending it at the right times? What social and family policies have the most impact during children’s earliest years? Is growing up in a single-parent household detrimental to children? Is inequality that persists across generations a threat to child well-being? Doing Better for Children addresses these questions and more.

This report is the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada's second annual report to Parliament on the state of public health in Canada. It considers the lifecourse approach to health — focusing on the lifelong impact of exposures and influences that occur early in life — and explores the current state of children's health in Canada up to and including age 11 years.

From this information, a number of worrying trends emerge that are either persistent or are increasing in prevalence, especially among certain sub-populations of children. Efforts to address these negative trends and reduce their impacts on children's health and development vary in approach and magnitude, from targeted community-level interventions to nationwide universal programs. Evidence suggests that, in some cases, broad multi-pronged approaches need to be developed, while in others current efforts should be supplemented in order to reach all those in need. Examples of successful and promising initiatives and research, both within Canada and abroad, provide guidance on optimal conditions and priorities to help children start and continue on the path to good health.