Planet Youth NB: let’s fight youth substance use together

Vitalité Health Network, September 26, 2023 – Vitalité Health Network, in collaboration with its partners and Horizon Health Network, celebrate the launch of the Planet Youth initiative in the Acadian Peninsula and Alnwick region. This community collaboration project aims to adapt the Icelandic prevention model, which has proven effective in reducing substance use among youth for over 20 years.

Objective: influence the social environment of young people to encourage healthy behaviours.

A group of students from Polyvalente W.-A.-Losier who attended the Planet Youth Program Launch.

A group of students from Polyvalente W.-A.-Losier who attended the Planet Youth Program Launch.

The community action team brings together public and mental health workers, community intervention professionals, as well as partners from the school community, RCMP representatives and the business community.

The next step will involve developing an action plan to implement projects by and for youth. The action team will work in collaboration with Planet Youth, an Icelandic research consultancy, which will provide its recommendations.

This prevention model focuses on building a positive environment around youth to mitigate risk factors, such as social isolation or stress, and strengthen protective factors, by fostering access to family, school and extra-curricular activities, for example, which promote well-being.

In some countries that have adopted this approach, this has primarily taken the form of events designed to make leisure activities accessible to all youth or opportunities for parents and care providers to build connections.

In February 2023, a survey of 299 students in Grade 10 was conducted in four schools in the Acadian Peninsula to evaluate their well-being and lifestyle habits.

Several observations were made:

  • Only 28% of girls surveyed said that their mental health was good or very good;
  • 23% of the youth surveyed smoke electronic cigarettes every day;
  • 27% of survey respondents had been drunk within the last 30 days;
  • 56% of survey respondents spend an average of three hours or more per day on social media.

“We would like to highlight the commitment shown by our partners towards this great project,” said Public Health nurses Nancy Ferguson and Jeannie Duguay.

This pilot project is one of the commitments made as part of the Provincial Health Plan entitled Stabilizing Health Care: An Urgent Call to Action.

The provincial government has committed to investing $255,000 per year for the duration of this five-year project. Four pilot sites were selected: Saint John, Woodstock, Kent County and the Acadian Peninsula.

"We are pleased to see communities coming together for the Youth Planet NB pilot project to help our youth become more resilient and reach their full potential. This project is a long-term investment in the next generation of citizens, offering them a healthier future," says Sherry Wilson, Minister responsible for Mental Health and Addiction Services.

In 2017, costs attributable to substance use in New Brunswick totalled more than $1 billion in the health care, social and justice systems, according to the Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms Working Group (2020).

Here are the spokespersons, community partners and staff members who participated in the event.

Here are the spokespersons, community partners and staff members who participated in the event.