News release

Youth Health Centre Promotes Health and Wellness

Health and Wellness

A new youth health centre at Digby Regional High School is piloting a new model to help teenagers with mental health and health promotion.

The goal is to use a standard approach to provide supports and services and to better co-ordinate and connect students with resources already available to them.

In 2018, government committed more than $1 million to create a youth health model. The two-year project was a recommendation put forward by the Minister’s Panel on Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions.

In Digby, a new space known as The Hub has been created for the centre and a full-time youth health promoter has been hired.

“We’re in the early stages of opening The Hub and it’s been an exciting time for the students to help give input on what they want this space to look like and be,” said Erin Todd, Nova Scotia Health Authority’s youth health promoter at Digby Regional. “It’s been really rewarding to see the students engaging with each other in this space and identifying things that will support and promote their health.”

Digby Regional High is the first school in the tri-county area to have a youth health centre. Three other schools are involved in the pilot: Amherst Regional, Glace Bay High and Citadel in Halifax.

The centres work with partners to offer students a range of services, including health education, mental health, health promotion, referrals and followup support.

Partners include the Department of Health and Wellness, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and regional centres for education.

The provincial funding for the investment comes from the Canada-Nova Scotia Home and Community Care and Mental Health and Addiction Services Funding Agreement. Announced in December 2016, the federal government is providing Nova Scotia with about $290 million over 10 years for targeted incremental investments in home and community care and mental health and addiction services.