New information released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows that rates of hospitalization for substance use among Canadians age 10 to 24 dropped by about 10% last year, compared with the year before. This represents 1,710 fewer hospitalizations in 2022–2023 than in 2021–2022 when about 22,985 Canadians in that cohort were hospitalized.
“We know that the pandemic was hard on children and young people, who experienced increased isolation and stress,” says Andrea Foebel, manager of Indicator Research and Development at CIHI. “And while we’ve seen modest improvements in some areas, the rates of hospitalizations due to substance use are still higher than in pre-pandemic times, which speaks to the continuing need for the mental health services this group requires.”
Today’s newly released findings also include the following:
- Cannabis was the most common substance related to a hospitalization for substance use for this age group, accounting for about 2 of every 5 hospitalizations for substance use. The 2022–2023 rate of hospitalizations related to cannabis for 10- to 24-year-olds is similar to the rate for 2018, when cannabis was legalized in Canada.
- Alcohol was present in 1 out of 4 hospitalizations caused by substance use; stimulants were present in 1 in 5; and opioids were present in 1 out of 10 hospitalizations.
- Among youth age 10 to 14, females represented about 75% of the hospitalizations caused entirely by alcohol. This is an increase from the year before, when females represented around 65%.
- The newest year of data also shows that 7 in 10 children and youth hospitalized for substance use also had a mental health diagnosis such as a mood, psychotic or anxiety disorder. This finding is consistent with data from the previous year.
- The rate of frequent emergency room (ER) visits — 4 or more visits in a year — for help with mental health and substance use among young Canadians also decreased slightly compared with the year before.
“We must improve how we keep kids safe — from promoting safe storage of edibles and maintaining the safeguards on legally sold cannabis products to furthering education programs for youth,” says Shea Wood, a knowledge broker and cannabis expert at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.
Children and youth waiting longer to access community mental health services
While hospitalizations and ER visits remained stable or decreased, the data available indicates that children and youth were waiting, on average, about 36 days to access community mental health and counselling services in 2022, compared with 27 days in 2020. The wait time for this age group is 7 days longer than the wait time for adults. (The services referred to here include only publicly funded services that are provided, coordinated or overseen by the government.)
These results were released today in CIHI’s Your Health System (YHS) web tool. CIHI has also updated the results for 48 existing Health System Performance indicators and 17 contextual measures in YHS, and for 26 indicators in the Health Indicators e-Publication.
About CIHI
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing essential health information to all Canadians. CIHI works closely with federal, provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders throughout Canada to gather, package and disseminate information to inform policy, management, care and research, leading to better and more equitable health outcomes for all Canadians.
Health information has become one of society’s most valuable public goods. For more than 25 years, CIHI has set the pace on data privacy, security, accessibility and innovation to improve Canada’s health systems.
CIHI: Better data. Better decisions. Healthier Canadians.