A collaboration between the provincial government, the Saskatchewan Health Authority and EGADZ has allowed for the opening of a new youth mental health home in Saskatoon.
On of the members of the youth committee at EGADZ, Vinny Moccasin, says it all started when Public Safety Minister Paul Merriman attended one of their meetings.
“We felt like nothing was being done. He came to one of our meetings, and we all kind of just completely dumped everything on him on what we wanted. That we wanted things to change, and that things aren’t okay right not for youth. There’s a lot of kids out there that need homes,” said Moccasin.
The home, which was decorated and organized by the youth committee members, will house eight teens battling homelessness, addiction, or mental health issues. The teens will also have a community recovery team available to them. This includes two addictions services nurses, and two mental health and addictions outreach workers.
Moccasin says she wanted to be a part of designing the program because she has siblings who will soon be living in a group home, and she wanted to help create a program that would make sure they were taken care of.
The home also has the capacity to expand and house two more youth ages 12-18 in the future.
EGADZ Executive Director Don Meikle says the youth are allowed to stay in the home as long as they feel necessary.
“This home is for kids who are going to be able to remain here until they (have) dealt with their addictions and (have) dealt with all their issues. We will (then) help them move on to a permanent place,” assured Meikle.
The home will aim to provide a safe place for Saskatoon and area teens to remain in their community while also receiving help with addictions and/or mental illnesses. The program’s intent is to reduce self-harming behaviors, suicide attempts and hospital visits.
The provincial government committed $1.05 million in funding to support the development and operation of the group home, which is part of a larger commitment of $2.4 million in 2023-24 to develop mental health group homes for youth in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert.
