Supporting the mental health needs of racialized young people

Supporting the mental health needs of racialized young people

Presented by SickKids CCMH Learning Institute

Date:  February 20, 2026
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Facilitator: Amy Gajaria, MD, FRCPC

Description: This training gives professionals guidance on providing culturally competent mental health care and services to diverse young people and their families.

The training will explore various ways that young people and their families may have felt unheard or uncomfortable in mental health settings due to their racial and/or ethnic identity and will discuss approaches that practitioners can use to help decrease barriers to care for young people and their families.

We will discuss oppression, racism and structural oppressions experienced by these populations. While the goal is to help all participants have greater comfort in dealing with these issues, participants should come willing to acknowledge the role these factors play in the lives of young people.

Learning objectives:

• Gain a greater understanding of the barriers to mental health care faced by racialized young people and their families.
• Acquire strategies to engage racialized young people and their families in mental health care.
• Identify specific struggles that racialized and underserved children and youth may face in Canada and how these might affect their mental health.

Registration fee: General - $300  |  Student and group rates are available

For full program overview and registration details please visit: https://cvent.me/EvlwPV

Facilitator Bio:
Amy Gajaria, MD, FRCPC.,  is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She also works at Black Creek Community Health Centre in the Jane/Finch neighbourhood of Toronto and in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She is the faculty lead at the University of Toronto for Underserved Selectives. Her clinical and research interests are in working with racialized and underserved children, youth, and their families, and in global mental health. 

Continuing Education (CE) information: 6 CE hours