The third International Youth Mental Health Conference hosted by the International Association of Youth Mental Health (IAYMH) in partnership with ACCESS Canada, McGill University, Graham Boeckh Foundation and Douglas Mental Health University Institute a part of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal will take place in Montreal from October 8 to 10, 2015, at Place des Arts under the theme “Transformations: Next Generation Youth Mental Health”.

The conference brings together health professionals, youth workers, educators, policy makers, young people and family members on equal footing to share and learn about new and emerging developments in striving to make changes for a global impact.

“Youths are the future of any society and their successful transition to adulthood is of the greatest significance. While adolescence and young adulthood are the most exciting periods of life, they also embody the greatest risk for problems of mental health that can derail future trajectories of life and its productivity in multiple domains. The subject matter of this conference is, therefore, of vital importance to society,” stated Dr. Ashok Malla, Professor at McGill University, Canada Research Chair in Early Psychosis, a clinician scientist at the Douglas Institute and Nominated Principal Applicant of ACCESS Canada, a 12 site pan-Canadian research network project funded through CIHR’s first Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) initiative and the Graham Boeckh Foundation. The goal of ACCESS Canada is to develop an evidence-informed, nationally scalable, sustainable model that leverages and transforms youth mental health services in Canada.

Building on the success from the last conference held in Brighton, England in 2013, Transformations will focus on how to make the transition from traditional health service models to the next generation of programs and services that will better meet the needs of young people and emerging adults. This is a conference where young people, academics, service providers and all other stakeholders share information in ways that are mutually understandable.
The International Association of Youth Mental Health (IAYMH) is a membership organization for practitioners, researchers, policy makers, young people and families. Its mission is to change the way the global community thinks about young people and their mental health by ensuring that services are developmentally and age appropriate, and that young people have an active voice in determining what is best for them.