Bay St. George resident hoping new youth mental health hubs will help keep young people in their community
Dylan Lopez has been active in community programming since a young age.
BAY ST. GEORGE, N.L. — Dylan Lopez has seen the impacts of young people not having enough mental health support first-hand.
“Around when I was maybe 13 or 14, I started getting into youth services and volunteering as something I can do to get out of the house. Then it evolved when I saw the differences and changes we did. And, over time, it came to pushing youth towards a more positive outlook on life,” Lopez says.
He can understand because he's been there, too.
“I came from a point I was in a rather bad spot. It was a bad outlook, but it gave me a good perspective on the things that youth may be either pushed into or drawn to," Lopez says.
"How those can be negative effects. Things like drugs, delinquency, what you come to expect from the situations.”
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He says social problems, like drug use and homelessness, are directly correlated with a lack of mental health care.
His experiences led him to join the Youth Advisory Council with Choices for Youth, and Integrated Youth Services.
Lopez is now headlining an effort to set up youth support hubs as a one-stop shop for youth services, including mental health.
“After nine years of living (in Ontario) we moved over to the Bay St. George area, and ever since then I've been dabbling in community work and other efforts around the town,” he says.
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Lopez has worked with various community organizations, including the Lions Club, local businesses, and the Qalipu Nation.
His work dabbles in a lot of issues but says it’s important that issues with youth mental health care access are addressed and discussed.
“I usually attend meetings with ideas and present various challenges, problems that we may face from a youth perspective,” Lopez says.
"We're mainly talking about the various factors that we see in Newfoundland. The living conditions, connections, and communities, the cultural influence with the youth.”
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Lopez says mental health care access goes beyond having a care centre. A major issue when accessing care is transportation.
“Most recently, we were looking at transportation and emergency response times, things that can all come together to give a better understanding of youth in the area and how they kind of adapt to the situation that we're in," he says.
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In his opinion, a one-stop-shop solution is perfect, because each person’s needs are different. With that approach, he says, people don’t have to shop around town for the right service they need. He believes it will also encourage people to stay in their home communities.
“Every person is unique, so we're obviously going to always give different help with every person. But I think the main idea is it gives them a good nudge in the right direction, because for the most part, with the issues we see in Newfoundland, it's that people tend to resort to leaving,” Lopez says.
“They don't have opportunities or they don't see any motivation. They lack any connection within their communities, so they go elsewhere.”
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Lopez says it's about much more than just mental health support. Sometimes, he says, people just want a place to rest and relax.
“They may form bad habits just by being in the community. Putting a more positive factor into the community could influence them to forge connections, come closer to the community, and overall have a better outlook on the people they live and associated with,” says Lopez.
“We mainly have lately looked into mental health as our prime focal point. Because mental health is a very big issue and movement as a whole, and it's especially worrisome with our youth because they're going to be the ones that will carry the torch on later into our lives.”
Lopez says there’s no better time for people to be directed to the right places than when they are young.
“It's important that we keep a good focus on them and make sure that they're being their best before they're setting out into the brave new world,” he says.
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There are services available in the community at the moment, but Lopez says they are usually fragmented, far away, or not available to everyone. He expects the new youth hub to complement the community.
“We do have a local hospital and we do have a couple of organizations operating in the area," he says, citing as examples the Lions Club and Momentum, which focuses on people who are on the spectrum.
“There isn't exactly a grandiose establishment for mental health in the area. There's a lot of different areas, a lot of different organizations, within the area that come together and fill that void,” Lopez says.
“Honestly, at the end of the day, in my opinion (the hub) adds on to it rather than kind of overshadowing the other options. Ideally, we want them to come together with this hub and chip in if they feel so. It's not that we're trying to one-up those organizations.”
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Sanuda Ranawake is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering Indigenous and rural issues.
Sanuda Ranawake, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Telegram
