Just over half of south Vancouver Island adolescents rated their mental health as good or excellent on a recent survey, a sharp decrease from five years before.
The 2023 B.C. Adolescent Health Survey, conducted by the McCreary Society, found 58 per cent of the region’s youth rated their mental health as good or excellent, down from 71 per cent in 2018 and 80 per cent in 2013.
The B.C.-wide survey was released in February, with 16 regional reports — including south Vancouver Island’s — released Friday. South Vancouver Island results come from students in the Greater Victoria, Sooke, Saanich and Gulf Islands school districts.
Just over a quarter of the adolescents surveyed reported having an anxiety disorder.
They are also more likely than other B.C. youth to have tried tobacco, alcohol and cannabis.
The McCreary Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving youth health in the province through research and evaluation, has done the survey seven times since 1992, with the previous one completed in 2018.
The 2023 survey, administered in schools by public-health nurses, included about 38,500 youth ages 12 to 19 in 59 of B.C.’s 60 school districts.
McCreary Society executive director Annie Smith said the 2023 survey was the first since the COVID-19 pandemic “and I think it really highlights the impact that has had on some young people.”
“It was concerning to see in this region that a quarter of students had missed school in the past month because of their mental health,” Smith said. “And 20 per cent did not take part in extracurricular sports or other activities because they felt too anxious or depressed.”
Smith added that more than half of the youth surveyed in the region who felt the need to access mental-health services didn’t want their parents to know — and 14 per cent said their parents had refused to take them for help.
“I think that tells us that we should be working with young people and their families to address any stigma or concerns that they have about accessing supports,” she said. “We need to make sure that everyone who feels they need help knows where to get that help and that it is OK to reach out.”
One positive finding is that more youth reported having an adult they can turn to with a serious problem than five years ago, Smith said.
Seventy-five per cent of south Vancouver Island respondents said they had a trusted adult in their lives, up from 71 per cent in the 2018 survey.
“Having supportive adults in their life can be a huge protective factor for youth, so it was encouraging to see that the majority of youth had at least one adult who they would be able to go to in a crisis,” Smith said.
“We know that young people are far more likely to report positive outcomes if they have such an adult in their life. They are not only more likely to report positive health and well-being now but are also more likely to feel hopeful, and have positive plans for the future.”
Also in the regional report, 81 per cent of males reported good or excellent overall health, as compared with 69 per cent of females and 44 per cent of non-binary youth.
As was the case in provincial results, the regional report for south Vancouver Island found that youth were less likely than those five years ago to report feeling connected to their family — 54 per cent, down from 60 per cent in 2018.
The regional report also found that 65 per cent of those responding felt safe at school, down from 77 per cent in 2018, while 70 per cent said they had three or more close friends, down from 82 per cent in 2018.
