A recent study from the University of Manitoba shows that youth are struggling with access to mental health and addictions care.

"This [is] a landmark study," said one of the researchers, James Bolton.

The study examined measures of mental health care in five provinces (Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec) and found that there is a lack of access to mental health and addictions care for young Canadians.

"In Manitoba, we seem to be managing mental health care very well at the primary level . . . and had less reliance on the emergency departments."

Unfortunately, Bolton points out, this wasn't helping as much as we would want. Manitoba's attempted suicide rate is higher than all the other provinces as well. While the study didn't look into the reason for the higher rate, it did look into the factors of mental health care.

"When we think about good quality mental health care, we think about them getting care on a regular basis from a regular doctor," Bolton said. "When we talk about the struggles young people have, it's because they aren't seeing their regular physician on a regular basis."

Bolton says we aren't getting young people into doctors are often as we should be, which could be a contributing factor. While he doesn't have any answers, he hopes this is a starting point.

"What I anticipate this starting point being is an opportunity to influence key decision makers in government to determine what kind of strategies we can put in place to improve mental health care," he said.

Analyn Einarson, CEO of Eden Health Care Services, agrees that the first step should be seeing your family physician.

"The physician will have the initial assessment of what they will need," she said.

Helping those with mental health problems can be difficult, especially when they aren't seeing their physician as often as they should. But Chris Marchand, pastor of Niverville Community Fellowship, says the church is uniquely positioned to help.

"Our mission is to love people," he said. "We do that better than mental health institutions that don't have that mandate, than medical facilities that don't have that as a mandate.

"It's not a magic pill, coming to Jesus doesn't mean that people won't have depression, but they will find community, they will find hope and they will find support."

Marchand says we can pray for those suffering with mental health issues such as depression and bring those problems before Christ.