The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Why Are Mental Health Challenges Rising So Quickly Among Gen Z?

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Why are mental health challenges escalating so rapidly among Gen Z, as antidepressant use and disability claims surge well beyond population norms? Then, when it comes to sexual health, why are young people having less sex overall, but taking fewer precautions and getting tested less often?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When TVO first went on air in 1970, the idea that public television could have a positive impact on learning was visionary. From beloved kid shows that sparked the joy of learning, pioneering must-see favorites exploring society and culture and series that made navigating life on Ontario a little easier, TVO's commitment to lifelong learning has stood the test of time. Renew your support now and help preserve this legacy. Visit TVO.comme slash 2026 renewal to make your donation today. Gen Z is getting a reputation. Burnt out, anxious, chronically online. But is that a stereotype where something actually going on?

A new survey from Sun Life Financial looked at three years of insurance claims from its plan members. And the trends around Gen Z, that's people born between 1997 and 2012, stand out. Antidepressant claims rose at double the rate of overall plan members. Where than half of Gen Z long-term disability claims were from mental health disorders. That's compared to about 40% for everyone else. And Sun Life also says chronic diseases in this group are going up and quickly. So what does this all mean? Another fact about Gen Z that gets a lot of attention, they're having less sex than previous generations.

For those who are having sex, they are dealing with a whole lot of mis and disinformation. So we're going to look at what safe and informed sex looks like in the age of Gen Z. This is the runday. A recent study found Gen Zed is dealing with mental health concerns at a disproportionate rate. Let's look at the numbers and what they suggest about what this generation is going through. Dr. Nicole Kozlov is a psychiatrist and the director of the Margaret and Wallace-McCain Center for Child, Youth, and Family Mental Health at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. Jenny U.N. is group head and executive vice president of partnerships and government relations at Kids Help Phone.

Great to have you both here. Jenny, I'm going to start with you. What do we know about Gen Zed that causes them to seek help in higher numbers than previous generations? Yeah, I think that, you know, the environment has changed, the destigmatization of mental health. It's just much more prominent, and we're seeing many more services and programs that are really talking about promoting help-seeking behavior, mental health literacy.

So that's the generation that they've grown up with. And, you know, technology is also all around them where, you know, many of the services and organizations are also in their worlds, really trying to ensure that they are aware that mental health and well-being will be a challenge and things will impact, but at the same time, there are also supports that are available.

Nicole, I'll get you in there. What do we know about this cohort that causes them to seek those higher numbers? Well, I think it's good news because I think partly it suggests that the stigma of seeking mental health support has been reduced over the year. and so it may be that mental health promotion initiatives are working,

that young people know where to seek support, and that organizations are designing their services to better meet the needs of youth. So that's all good news. What I worry about, though, is that it's not only that more young people are recognizing that they need support and know where to get it, but that the numbers of young people who are experiencing mental health problems has been going up. Jenny, I'm hoping you can play ball with me here.

There's, you know, when we talk about stigma, sometimes the conversation around this specific cohort is about resilience. Perhaps they're not resilient enough. And I think some of it might be having to do with how we frame that question. As you said, this is a generation that can adapt, is talking about things a little bit more than previous generations. Is it a fair question to ask? Is this cohort resilient? I think it's twofold to what Nicole had said as well. They're also experiencing more.

They're really processing the world in real time when you have so much technology in front of you. They have so much more information than we would have had. And so they're processing it in a way where they're still developing their life skills and this ability to be able to adapt. So they're compounded reasons as to why they're experiencing this. But at the same time, they do have access to more support. So it's coming both ways, right, where they're experiencing more, but there's also more support out there.

So they will require that resilience because they're just consuming a lot more in real time. Nicole, with that being said, we know that financial worries, climate change concerns are top of mind for this cohort. How do you see that reflected in the people that you work with in your services? Yeah, so I think it's a really good point

that when we talk about resilience, we need to think about what are we asking young people to be resilient to? And when we look at, you know, rates of poverty and food insecurity and housing supply and, as you said, climate change and all the other issues that are in the world right now, it's important that we don't expect that the youth who have experienced the greatest structural inequities are that we're expecting the most from them in terms of resilience. So I think it's really important to ensure that the world around us is a place that helps support young people and their development and their hope for the future. Jenny, I want to get a better understanding of sort of the work that you do at Kids Help Phone. Help us understand sort of the concerns. Obviously, we're talking about a specific cohort, but you also deal with a cohort that's younger.

than this as well. What are their concerns? Yeah, I mean, we're seeing a lot in our services around bullying, loneliness, relationships. In 2025, we started to see an increase in conversations around sex-stortion. And so we're really- Sex-stortion. What do we mean? Yeah, so this is actually, it's basically being extorted for photos or something that you've done where, and it'll be released unless there's a demand meant. And so we're starting to see some of those trends in our, in our conversations with young people. And actually more specifically, we're seeing more in male service users. So it's really such, you know, to what Nicole said, too,

there's just a lot of complexity in terms of what young people are experiencing at younger ages. Our service mandate is actually 5 to 29 that we never turn young people away. And we're just seeing an increase in conversations around suicide and suicide ideation, self-harm, bullying, loneliness. And then, like I said, we're starting to see those emerging trends. Like we did, you know, years before when cyberbullying was becoming, you know, a major issue. We're really starting to seeing those trends because we're in their worlds.

There's nothing more local than exactly where you are in the moment that you're feeling them and having a safe space and having that agency to reach out. And so with that, we get a lot of honesty and the ability for young people to want or seek help, but also share what they're experiencing. You mentioned self-harm. There was a recent article in the Toronto Star that's that highlighted that self-harm is up among young girls. Do we know what's driving that specifically? I think, you know, some of the things that we've talked about here is just the complexity in relationships and loneliness and how they're experiencing the world overall. And it is a way that they are finding a way to cope.

So it's one of those things where we're starting to see that emerging trend. So that really that type of data then helps inform what prevention and literacy might do, you know, as we're in communities really trying to build prevention as well. Nicole, help us understand a little bit from the KMAG's perspective. What issues are you seeing in the work that you're doing with children and youth? So certainly we're seeing the same issues with. self-harm, suicidal ideation. We're seeing all of the typical mental health problems that have presented in the past, but in greater numbers, issues with substance use, and particularly

cannabis, with technology overuse. So it really runs the gamut. And I think to Jenny's point, really reflects that young people are being asked to cope with greater complexity in the world and may not have the positive coping skills in order to deal with it. We talked a little bit about sort of the landscape that this cohort has essentially been born in. This is a corner that's grown up in a fast-changing digital world. I am curious, what role does social media, Jenny, play when being perpetual online and its connection to poor mental health? It's so interesting. So on the one hand, we certainly see from that 15 to 24 age group,

you know, all of them, actually the whole cohort really says it helps them stay connected to stay current on events and they want to learn things. That's really how they're. We talked about loneliness as well. That's right. It's so interesting. And then on the flip side, we're also hearing that there are the negative effects or that cohort of kind of 15 plus is really experiencing the negative effects more. However, that element of connectivity and being able to, that is part of their world. So it's that that, that, um, tension that they all feel, where it does have negative effects, but it also has positivity. So that's why a lot of the programs that, you know, we're seeing a lot of platforms develop as well in partnership with organizations that are you serving, is really focused on literacy. How do you, you know, what are those guardrails?

How do you use it, but how do you use it safely? And how do you ensure that it's actually fostering, you know, positive mental health and well-being and trying to prevent some of the negative impacts as well? Do you mind if we unpack that a little bit? Sure. What are we talking about when we talk about those guardrails? What is some of the advice? Yeah, so we've had certainly young people reach out

and some of the coping tips that we share on kithelfone.ca as well is really making it timebound, understanding where you're going to, how you want to engage with it, where your friends might be. So being able to set those boundaries are incredibly important and really understanding the, you know, that the algorithms of student scrolling and all this thing,

putting time limits are incredibly important and also trying to foster those, the positive ways in terms of how you want to communicate through social, as well as the content that you're looking at as well. Nicole, I'm sure that with the young people that you're working with, you're learning a lot from them as well. You know, young people are well-versed,

not only in just therapeutic buzzwords that I think that, you know, we may jokingly be like, well, you know, let's unpack all that, but there's some stuff to learn there. But how do they build resilience to approach some of the conditions they're so keen to talk about? So I think this partly gets at some of the negative consequences, of social media overuse, which is that it takes them away sometimes from, you know, real-life connection. And I think that's where we can help them build coping skills is, you know, how do you connect with people around you with your community?

How do you be physically present and identify ways of accessing support that we might traditionally have, look to in the past. You know, young people are reporting that they're less likely to talk to their parents and their family or other adults about their feelings than than in previous cohorts. So it's really important that the adults around them make it so that they're likely to open up to them, that they validate their experiences, and that they show genuine interest in how they're feeling and what they're experiencing. Jenna gets an add-on to that. Yeah, and I think that's the element that we've talked about as well is how does social actually

engage and actually foster your mental health and well-being, but at the same time, exactly what Nicole said, there's a role for that. And then what are the other elements of your plan or the way that you want to, you know, foster your positive mental health outside of your devices? So that's been something that's been a conversation across all of our channels. And like I said, we're continuing to see young people reach where it's that, like I said, it's that tension. It's exactly how they stay connected,

but at the same time, we want to set those guardrails. All right. I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about, you know, what, not only parents, but, you know, what can government, what can schools, what can employment, employers do as well, to sort of help young people with their fears and worries. Jenny?

Yeah, I think for us, we're hearing a lot, especially in the Gen Z, as they think about, you know, job seeking and education in those elements. We're really seeing significant worry around affordability, employment and whatnot. And then you balance that with needing actually mental health resources when they are in these jobs overall. And so when we talk about promoting help-seeking,

it's also enabling systems that allow for them to reach out for the support. It can be incredibly expensive. And so offering the free services or ways that they can navigate a system that actually is supported by government, supported by community, those are really important to enable the access. So it's not just about creating the access. It's actually enabling it. And so part of it is funding and the ability for us to support people through that journey.

If money is one thing, is there one thing right now that you look at the system, dealing with the young people that you work with, that you can look at as a quick fix, that would be like this is something that obviously we're not paying much attention to, but would reap some big rewards. Yeah, I think part of it is making those access points accessible, for lack of better term. How are we showing up in their world? you know, so a young person might not know they need support until they're exactly in that moment. So how do you meet them in the moment, as opposed to them needing to search and navigate

what service might be appropriate for them? So being able to have as many doors as possible that really lead them into an ecosystem that can support them no matter what the issue is really the key. So outside of funding, to your point, the access and enabling that access being where they are, that's why the innovation and technology and being in those spaces is so important. Nicole, all right, let's get you in here. What can government, if we're looking at the employers themselves, what can they do to help young people with their fears and worries that we've talked about today? So I think it's so important that we have a spectrum of services available.

And so to Jenny's point, it's really important that we have low barrier services that are offered in a timely way. So for example, walk-in services services like kids help phone that meet young people where they are in the moment. And also that that opens the door to a spectrum of services that is targeted to their level of need and to the specific mental health problems they have. Some young people will need, you know, one or two sessions, and then they'll have their needs met by that. And as long as they can get that in a timely way and it's evidence-based and by a professional therapist, they'll have their needs met. other young people are going to have more recurrent or longer-term problems, that they're going to need something more intensive, a longer term. And we need to have that in the system available too. So really, it's about having the right services available at the right time to meet young people

where they are. Nicole, Jenny, we are going to have to leave it there. Really appreciate your insights and your knowledge on this. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Thank you. It's pretty obvious that growing up in the social media age presents a lot of challenges, but especially when it comes to the world of sex. Solid information can be hard to find and misinformation is everywhere. I sat down with Shaman Muhammad Jr., the founder of Let's Stop AIDS, a youth-led HIV charity to talk about some of the challenges and solutions. Thank you so much for having us at the headquarters here,

Let's Stop Aides. Love to welcome you here. Tell me how this organization started. This started when you were only 15. Yeah, it was 15. I went to a high school in Toronto. And as simply as it put, a lot of my friends and people at my school weren't talking about sexual health at all.

I wanted to do something about it. I noticed that more of my friends were getting pregnant, STIs, and potentially HIV. So I started to gather a few friends and founded Let's Stop AIDS. that process, it was very difficult. My principal asked if I was trying to start a scam or something. Many of my own friends even said, can't you just get another organization to do this? Shouldn't they do it? And quickly through realizing there was a major gap. That gap was a lack of knowledge and discussion about our sexual health and what's going on in our communities. And I had to do something about it. I want to fast forward now. You are several years removed from

school. How do you think youth's attitudes towards sex and STI sexually transmitted infections have changed? Have they changed at all? What is the conversation now? It's been over 21 years since I founded Let's Stop AIDS and now been seeing a couple decades of youth HIV related data and STI data. And there's one thing that's consistent that we're seeing. We're seeing that if young people are learning and having knowledge from other peers around their age. There's the ability to trust and gain confidence to better understand sexual health and their communities and what's around them. We realize that our information and knowledge that we have now has become more sparse,

less clarity. We've realized that there's a lot of pros and cons in our time right now. Some of those pros are we're in a world of digital knowledge, of accessible, sometimes you could hear information from the best influencers in the world. And some major constraints are that there's no reliability on the information, a lack of access to those services of trying to actually understand where they are. Like, we found that 64% of young Canadians didn't really know where to access those services. Like, these are major problems in our country.

Some people will say that a lot of progress has also happened in that short period of time. We're talking about the 20 years from high school. Yes. Tell me a little bit about that as well. In terms of progress has been significant. We're in a time now where we do have tools that are available that could actually allow you to be tested quicker. There are methods to now, including the evolution of telemedicine in Ontario, that's allowed easier access to sexual health information and knowledge. There's been an improvement of mental wellness and mental health programs in our province and in our country. but this all comes with major constraints. I think that again, there's a lack of actually accessing those resources and knowing where to find it

and actually getting the understanding of the importance of accessing it. There's no point of having an HIV self-testing kit if you don't understand the importance. It'll just form dust at your home or wherever you keep it. The same goes along with the discussion of condoms. We found out that for condom rates, condoms have been on a gradual decline in our country to the point where one in five young Canadians are not using condoms at all. Put that in perspective for us. And in terms of data in the past when we talked about one of five?

Well, in terms of Canada, Canada has the highest rate of new HIV transmissions of N.EG7 nations. If we look at some of our provinces outside of Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have the highest rate of new HIV transmissions in our country. They're rising. In Ontario, our numbers of HIV and STI rates. have also been on a steady rise. This all stems from awareness, knowledge issues, accessibility of actually these services,

of actually adapting what we have and being open-minded to pivoting with individuals. As you mentioned, the education part is the biggest part. And so with young people, I am curious, there's this notion or idea that Gen Ziers are not having as much sex as previous generations. And I want to get a sense from you. Is that true?

So let's talk about that right at the beginning and get it out of there. Young people are having less sexual activity now than any other time right now. That doesn't mean that they're not having sex. I am curious then. Is it fair to say that our young people are not adequately educated on the risks of HIV and STIs? I think that there is a mixture of reliable, trustworthy, up-to-date information that's missing. Our Ontario's curriculum and setup that we have is actually outdated. It's very heavily focused on the biology versus on the emotional understanding of negotiation,

mental wellness issues, LGBT, queer reality issues, non-binary issues, also around the ideas of drug use into the factor. We're in a generation where we're hearing in the news that people are drinking less and having less sex in the world. But then when we look at our data, it's not really matching. So what this tells me is that the information that may be published or is online is maybe not up to date, not convincing enough, or not leading young people to the resources they need to make better informed decisions about their life and to be confident about those decisions so that it's not an awkward conversation. I want to come back to the conversation around condoms.

The WHO World Health Organization in 2024 reported the alarming decline in condom use among young people. And your study also found some of that data to match in that case. case, what is it about, even in your report, the sort of the anecdotal things that people were saying about condom use. I think one was, quote unquote, bad vibes. Yeah. What is what I think, like what is the conversation? So let's stop Bates publishes an annual report. Three editions have been published and the fourth is around the corner. It's called the Sex Lives Report. It's the largest survey on youth sexual health and behaviors in our country. Each year, there's about 1,100 Canadians representative of Canada that do this survey to help us get a stronger

pulse on youth sexual health and behavior. It's very clear that there's been a lack of discussion around condom use. It's not just used as a tool that's to prevent pregnancy, but preventing STIs and lowering your risk of HIV. If individuals are taking prep, there's still a risk of getting STIs and other issues that need to be discussed. So these type of topics also are something that need to be better understood. We learned that a lot of that comes on actually selecting the right condom, selecting what's best for an individual. Regardless of sexuality or gender, it actually has to become a mutual discussion.

And with this global concern of not using any tool at all, So not using prep, not using condoms, not getting tested. 67% of these healthcare professionals are not proactively having these discussions with young people. They're not having these discussions and our teachers are not able to have the right curriculum to have these discussions with our students. Who is their parents, their friends, who may not have the most up-to-day information, who may not even want to have this discussion due to the taboos around in their cultural. norms. So something that is fixable, I wouldn't say easily fixable, but something that we can actually have a standardization that could let young people feel empowered. I want to pick up on

testing. As you mentioned, for a lot of people who have never been tested, they might be surprised that. It's quite easy. It's a blood test in many cases a prick of the finger. What are some of the obstacles that are getting in the way? Tons of obstacles. A lot of young people don't have a family doctor. Finding a family doctor is difficult. Taking time if you're a young individual and you do have the fortune of having a job, you have to find a way that you could navigate getting tested during business hours, which most of these clinics are not opened over those times. And without doing it during the weekend, if you're in a very culturally sensitive family, you have to try and find a way to quietly do these tests. These are real dilemmas that

young people face. Let's even talk about the employer end very briefly. You can't take too many sick days or ends up becoming an issue. So these are real stressors that young people face when they have to learn about navigating. And this is if you are someone who's aware about how to get tested. This is if you understand how testing works and the importance. It's about understanding this importance of testing is actually you taking care of your general health, taking care of the others around you. There's many young people, uh, in our survey that we actually highlight, don't have the percent on the top of my head, but that have been, have had multiple sexual partners and have never been tested.

That's rather concerning. I want to talk about the gaps that you guys fill. You mentioned the Ontario curriculum and the gaps there. What did your organization, other organizations like you try to do to fill those gaps? So let's stop AIDS has to cover a wide plethora from being on the ground in the grassroots level to being a strategic planner. and strategically involved. On the strategic level, in 2013, Let's Stop Aides was elected

an official seat on UNAIDS's board as the NGO delegate representing North American charities. We use that platform to be able to advocate and be able to mention these topics on a global level. On our grassroots levels, we need to be in touch and understand what goes on in our province and in our country. Over the last couple of years,

we've met with 3,200-plus students. That's about 160 plus workshops in schools. These workshops are not your boring workshops where you have a slideshow and a projector going. These are gamified workshops that actually engage with young people. And actually are held and facilitated by other young facilitators who are volunteers in the community, who are our staff and team who understand age appropriateness of bringing forward content. There's something very important about that. It's about building comfort, about building confidence.

about building understanding and also realizing that teachers are buying lectures and workshops online, whereas when we are providing these, it's actually up to date and it's actually fun. With that being said, if there are people who are interested in making a difference on an individual level, what are your recommendations? Over two decades of Let's Stop Bates and we've had more than 25,000 volunteers that have been part of our organization, and that's how young people are active. It's a civic duty to, I think, encourage young people to get involved. It doesn't have to be with Let's Stop AIDS.

It could be with any organization. But being involved in your community lets you become a more aware person and lets you build that youth leadership skills. I would say anyone who is watching this, it's really important to connect with a cause, a community, or an idea, and make these conversations like sexual health more easily accessible because in the end of the day, you're actually creating a more connected community that's going to lead to a more connected Canada and a more connected way of caring and understanding

that when someone comes to you and they tell you that they have an STI or HIV or HIV, you'll know how to respond to that with care, compassion, and with the resources of where to direct them. They're going to leave it there. Thank you. So much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for all the work that you guys do.

Oh, thank you. I'm Jayne. Thanks for watching The Rundown. What topics would you like us to tackle? Send us your suggestions at The Rundexam. down at tbo.org or leave us a comment on YouTube. Until then, I'll see you tomorrow.