Health and youth-service providers in Ontario are preparing for a substantial increase in calls and referrals when schools reopen, after several years of rising demand for child and adolescent mental-health support. Stakeholders say the seasonal spike in September is now arriving amid a broader and sustained growth in need.
Rising demand strains system
Groups co-ordinating access to services report a marked increase in volume. One regional connector, 1Call1Click, documented a 69 per cent rise in demand over four years and expects further growth heading into the new school year. The number of children under six seeking support also climbed sharply, more than doubling from 502 in 2024 to over 1,000 last year.
| Measure | Change |
|---|---|
| Overall demand (four-year change) | +69% |
| Children under six (2024 → last year) | 502 → >1,000 |
Why September matters
Clinicians and service coordinators explain the return to school often exposes or amplifies mental-health struggles. Teachers and other education staff frequently identify young people who need help only once the school year resumes, which contributes to the seasonal surge in referrals.
Dr. Katherine Matheson, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, described the current generation of children as facing greater pressures with fewer supports. She pointed to changes in how children spend their time and the influence of social media as important factors.
“We are in an era where children have more demands on them than ever before with less resources,”
Matheson added that children are spending less time playing freely and outdoors, and that the effects of social media on mental well-being "cannot be underestimated."
Systemic gaps and wait times
Provincial audits and reporting have documented gaps in care. Ontario’s auditor general previously found that the province was not providing adequate mental-health supports for youth and children. As a result, waits for intensive treatment have grown: in some areas, families face delays of more than three months before accessing intensive services.
Those delays intensify pressure on community providers and primary-care clinicians in September, as a backlog of needs that accumulated over the summer becomes visible. The combination of increasing referrals and limited capacity forces organisers of access networks and front-line services to plan for surges while trying to prevent unsafe delays for the most vulnerable children.
What providers are doing
- Regional access points are projecting volumes and reallocating resources to respond to seasonal needs.
- Clinicians are urging schools, families and primary-care providers to identify concerns early and refer promptly.
- Some organisations are expanding triage and brief-intervention options to manage demand and prioritise intensive resources for those at highest risk.
Despite these measures, experts say system capacity continues to lag behind rising need. The pattern of heavier demand during the school year, and particularly in September, is likely to persist unless broader investments are made to expand timely access to evidence-based treatments and supports for children and youth.
For families, clinicians advise maintaining open lines of communication with schools and health-care providers and seeking help early when they notice changes in mood, behaviour, sleep or school functioning. Community access points and primary-care teams remain the first port of call for assessment and referral.
As the new school year approaches, Ontario’s youth mental-health sector is bracing for a familiar but larger wave of demand — one shaped by social change, greater recognition of need and enduring service shortfalls.
