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Pathstone Mental Health Experiencing Spike in Demand for its Services

Pandemic taking toll on children's mental health

Pathstone Mental Health has released new stats showing the toll the pandemic has taken on Niagara's youth.

The agency says over the past year, over 9,000 children and youth have received early intervention, prevention, and acute mental health support at Pathstone, a 35 per cent increase from the same period a year before.

Some therapy programs for individuals as well as families saw increases of more than 200 per cent, which is 250 times more clients than the agency is funded to serve. 

Pathstone CEO Shaun Baylis noting in a release, one of the largest segments of growth they experienced were children aged 6-10 who accounted for 43 per cent of their clients compared to the year before (pre pandemic) which was slightly less than 25 per cent. 

Baylis noting because of the increased demand they have long exhausted their government funding and now have to find ways to raise much needed funds to remove the Pathstone's current waitlist for services.

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