10% of Ontario youth have multiple problems, mental health study says.

TORONTO -- "Ten per cent of the students surveyed are telling us they are experiencing multiple problems," said Dr. Ed Adlaf, co-author of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health survey of Ontario's youth.

"This new finding reinforces we're on the right track developing prevention, education and treatment programs which recognize youth who have mental health problems, often abuse drugs and alcohol and exhibit anti-social behaviour."

The study also found that:

* slightly less than one third of students experienced elevated psychological distress with females reporting this more at 39 per cent than males at 22 per cent,

* one in eight students had serious thoughts about suicide in this past year, with 17 per cent more females reporting these thoughts than males at eight per cent.

Ontario teens, Adlaf added, are more vulnerable than is commonly realized and need more attention through:

* more funding for mental health services,

* added school counsellors, and

* in and out of school support programs.

"This new finding reinforces we're on the right track developing prevention, education and treatment programs which recognize youth who have mental health problems, often abuse, drugs and alcohol and exhibit anti-social behaviour."

The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students Report, which was conducted in the spring 2003 as part of the Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, found that one in ten youth in grades 7 to 12 experienced multiple--three or more--mental health issues, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, problem drinking, other drug use and anti-social behaviours, such as vandalism and violence.

The study's authors were: Dr. Ed Adlaf, head of CAMH'S Population and Life Course Studies; Dr. David Wolfe, RBC Investments Chair in CAMH'S Children's Mental Health and Development Psychopathology; Dr. Joseph Beitchman, TD Bank Group Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at CAMH; and research analyst Angela Paglia-Boak.