Community & Mental Health Resources
Laing House
Laing House is a drop-in centre for youth aged 16 – 29 living with a mood disorder, psychosis and/or anxiety disorder. Based on peer support, members can meet friends who have gone through similar experiences and support each other as they find wellness. Programming includes art, meals, education and employment support, camping, music and more.
Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team
902-429-8167
The Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team (MHMCT) provides crisis support for children, youth and adults experiencing a mental health crisis. Service offers telephone crisis support 24 hrs a day 7 days a week anywhere in Nova Scotia and a Mobile Response from 1 pm to 1 am to most communities in Halifax Regional Municipality. MHMCT is a co-response model with police and has 4 Halifax Regional Police dedicated to the service and all mobile visits include an MHMCT police officer and a mental health clinician. There is no fee for this service.
Phoenix Youth
Phoenix provides a wide range of services to youth, families and communities. Services are free of charge, confidential, and inclusive – Phoenix respects and welcomes people from all cultures and walks of life. Services include advocacy, youth outreach, community engagement, arts, recreation and leadership, health services, parent support, housing support, money management, crisis support, education support and employment support.
CHOICES Addictions
http://www.iwk.nshealth.ca/mental-health/youth/choices-addictions
CHOICES provides a variety of treatment services for adolescents aged 13 up to 19 years old who are harmfully involved with substances, gambling and/or who have a concurrent disorder, which means a substance use problem and a mental health disorder at the same time. CHOICES provides a wide range of voluntary services from Health Promotion & Prevention, Community Outreach, Outclient Clinical Services, a Day Program and a Provincial 24/7 Inpatient Treatment Service. CHOICES utilizes a harm reduction approach where you can partner with your clinician around your treatment goals to reduce the harms associated with substance misuse.
For Emergency Mental Health and Addiction help, call 911 or go to the IWK Emergency Department, or the Emergency Department closest to you.
Kids Help Phone
Kids Help Phone is Canada’s only 24/7, national support service. They offer professional counselling, information and referrals and volunteer-led, text-based support to young people in both English and French. Whether by phone, text, mobile app or through their website, you can connect with them whenever you want, however you want. The service is completely confidential — you don’t even have to tell them your name if you don’t want to. To find out more go to the webpage and see all they have to offer.
Call a Counsellor: 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868 to chat confidentially with a trained counsellor.
Avalon Sexual Assault Centre
This specialized therapeutic counselling program is available to women & Trans/gender non-identified individuals 16 years and older, who have experienced a recent or historical sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, and/or sexual harassment. They also provide individual information sessions to the non-offending parents of children who have disclosed sexual abuse, and to supportive partners of clients accessing services.
If your call involves a recent assault within the past three months and you would like to speak with an Avalon counsellor, your call will be prioritized and every attempt will be made to return your inquiry within 24 business hours.
- An initial consultation and support session will be offered to you within 7-10 business days. Also, if this call is in regards to a recent sexual assault, they can share with you the phone number for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.
They offer 1-10 therapeutic counselling sessions to those who are currently experiencing a heightened time of distress or crisis following a recent sexual assault or are experiencing strong flashbacks and immediate distress stemming from a past sexual violation.
Halifax Sexual Health Centre
This clinic offers a variety of services to help care for your sexual health. They offer a wide-range of on-site clinical services, typically by appointment. All services are provided by experienced nurses and doctors. Their clinical services are free with a valid health card. Without a health card, fees will apply. This is a youth-friendly centre and they do not require parental consent. Everything that happens in their clinic is totally confidential (Please note: There are a few exceptions to this such as our legal obligation to report known cases of child abuse to police and to report positive tests for certain sexually transmitted infections to Public Health. If you have any questions or concerns about these exceptions, please speak to one of the health care practitioners).
YMCA
The YMCA is a charity dedicated to the growth of all persons in spirit, mind and body, and to their sense of responsibility to each other and the global community.
Youth Project
This organization supports youth around issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Youth Project provides a variety of services for LGBTQ+ youth 25 & under. Please visit their website to see what services are offered, and dates for upcoming events and programming.
CEED - Centre for Entrepreneurship and Development
CEED is committed to inspiring young people of all ages and circumstances across the province, encouraging them to embrace entrepreneurial thinking and to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option. They take pride in introducing students to the many benefits of entrepreneurship education, including improved problem solving skills, enhanced self-worth, the ability to apply theory to real life situations, greater awareness of social responsibility, better likelihood of completing formal education.
Leave Out Violence (LOVE)
https://loveorganization.ca/ns/
A charitable, not for profit organization that uses innovative arts and self-expression based techniques to assist violence-affected youth in transforming their life experiences into peace-making work.
IWK - Great Websites for Children and Youth
http://www.iwk.nshealth.ca/mental-health/youth/helpful-website-children-and-youth
The Nova Scotia Health Authority has compiled a list of websites for young people who are seeking support in a variety of areas. Go to this website and explore the many available and helpful websites and organizations for the following:
- General Mental Health and Addictions
- Abuse
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Autism
- Bullying
- Depression/Anxiety
- Eating Disorders
- Substance Misuse
- Psychosis
- Self Harm/Self Injury
- Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
- Suicide
- Trouble with the Law