As Canada’s youth get ready to return to school, experts say students are still facing big mental health challenges years after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns upended the world.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) just released its Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey that it has conducted every two years since 1977. A survey of over 11,000 students between grades 7-12 in Ontario found that students’ mental health is trending better than in 2023, but there are still red flags. The survey was conducted between December 2024 and June 2025.
Percentage of students reporting poor mental health
Almost half of students surveyed, 46 per cent, reported having moderate to serious psychological distress, which has seen a steady increase over the years since being at 24 per cent in 2013.
“Young people are still experiencing pretty significant mental-health concerns,” CAMH psychiatrist and youth mental health director Nicole Kozloff told Yahoo Canada. “(The distress) is an indicator that (young) people are struggling overall.”
Young people are still experiencing pretty significant mental-health concerns.
Many of the statistics from the survey have come down from a “peak” in 2023, Kozloff said, but are at a similar level as in 2021 and worse than in 2019. About one in seven students reported harming themselves in the last year, and one in six students (17 per cent) had serious thoughts about suicide in the past year, up from 11 per cent in 2001.
Percentage of students reporting any online gambling 2003-2025
An outlier from the survey is the rise of online gambling, with 10 per cent saying they have bet on sports at least once in the past year, up from just 1 per cent in 2017. Sports betting became legal in Ontario in 2022 with ads appearing during televised sporting events, Kozloff pointed out.
“How much young people are engaging in sports betting and other online gambling is a trend we really need to watch,” she said. “More and more young people seem to be impacted.”
A folder of social media applications, including TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Discord, and Messenger, is displayed on a smartphone screen placed on a reflective surface onto which a colorful abstract illustration is projected, in Creteil, France, on June 19, 2026. T(Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Expert cautions on addictive nature of social media: ‘A playground … designed for adults’
Another concern going into the next school year is technology’s effects on youth’s mental health. Rachel Mitchell, a youth psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Hospital, told Yahoo Canada that young people are uniquely vulnerable to social media addiction due to their prefrontal lobe not being fully developed, which affects impulse control.
“We have a playground that kids are playing in (that is) designed for adults,” Mitchell said. “(Social media is) not at all designed for them.”
Social media risks include round-the-clock access on a child’s devices; an addictive design; and exposure to inappropriate content from which it is nearly impossible to shield them. There is also an element of stranger danger, with the potential for youth to be contacted on social media platforms by anyone.
The new 2025 survey found 25 per cent of students spend at least five hours a day using social media, up from 11 per cent in 2013.
But one element of social media that has stood out for Mitchell is how digital interactions have come to replace in-person ones for today’s youth. This could impact their interpersonal skills and promote staying at home rather than getting out into the world.
“There’s never been a time when there are more kids at home. I see it every day and it blows me away,” Mitchell said. “It really makes me think how kids are learning how to have meaningful long-term relationships if they’re not actually experiencing it in person.”
While Ontario has had a cell-phone ban in classrooms since 2024, Mitchell said teachers are struggling to enforce it and there might not be much bandwidth to continue to try to implement it given its lack of success so far.
A teenager is sitting on the floor, looking at a cell phone. (Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Artificial intelligence: ‘If they don’t even know what’s real, that’s scary’
And now there are the risks of artificial intelligence and chatbots, such as ChatGPT. More young people are using chatbots as their own personal therapists, Mitchell said. The only difference is chatbots tend to never disagree with the user, even if what they are suggesting may be harmful. It is now regular practice for Mitchell to question one of her patients’ stance as a position that has come from AI’s influence, such as to cheat on a test or not to talk to their parents.
AI also poses the threats of deep fakes, like AI-generated images that put youth in whatever situation their peers can think of, as well as the increasing difficulty for young people now to tell what’s real.
“If the default is nothing is real, imagine facing life from that vantage,” Mitchell said. “If they don’t even know what’s real, that’s scary.”
Teenage girls are looking at their smartphones in front of a school in Valence, Drome department, southeastern France, on July 7, 2026. (Photo by Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)
How do you solve a 24-7 problem like technology?
One element of today’s technology is how pervasive it is.
It never really goes away with virtually 24-7 access through phones and other devices. This means that kids don’t necessarily have space to unwind once home from school, to get away from social pressures or even a school bully, Mitchell said.
Kids Help Phone recently announced that overnight texts were up almost 25 per cent in 2026 compared to 2025. Anjana Sudharshan, co-chair of the organization’s National Youth Council, told Yahoo Canada that nighttime is when uncertainty about the future and the weight of the world can really get to young people, especially with doomscrolling, and there may not be anyone around at that time they can talk to.
All these pressures tend to mount up even more when school begins, she said. The help line is expecting a surge in demand in September.
“Back to school can be a time where we see things start to compound again,” Sudharshan said. “It can be very overwhelming.”
If they don’t even know what’s real, that’s scary.