Kids Help Phone (KHP) is Canada’s only national, bilingual, 24/7 e-mental health service offering free, confidential support to all youth in any moment of crisis or need. It’s an essential service because nearly half of young people who want to talk to someone about their mental health don’t know where to go.

This necessitates an investment in youth mental health, but adults didn’t realize the extent of the national crisis. Research shows that parents are often unaware of their child’s mental health struggles, with 52% of youth having a different perception of their mental health than their parents. When a difference occurred, almost two-thirds of youth rated their mental health less positively than their parents.1

So, we attacked the disparity between adult attitudes and youth realities head on. Our objective was to ensure adults knew youth today face no bigger challenge than suffering poor mental health alone.

Source: Statistics Canada

We meet a young person leaving class for the day. His teacher notices something might be wrong and asks if he’s alright. “I’m fine.”, the boy says as he walks off. And with those two words, we’re taken behind the scenes to see how things are really going. A break-up leads us to another young person looking through a medicine cabinet for pills. “I’m fine”, she says. From the medicine cabinet to a girl’s first time to the pressures of white beauty standards to transitioning in secret – the curtain is pulled back on the words “I’m fine”, revealing what young people are really going through. The emotional rollercoaster finally comes to a halt, ending with the first boy we met now at home. He says the same two words when his mom checks on him, only to reveal that he’s on his phone chatting with to Kids Help Phone.

Adults now know that the kids aren’t ‘fine’. Adult perception that mental health is the most important challenge faced by youth today rose by 7 points.

This perceived importance didn’t just affect attitudes. Adults across the country reported that it also drove 29% of them to learn more about mental health, 26% to learn more about KHP and 22% to volunteer for the organization.

Sources: Kids Help Phone Brand Health Tracking, Waves 2 (2022) and 1 (2023)