MONTREAL - The Douglas Mental Health University Institute has received a major donation to help prevent teen suicide.
The insurance company Standard Life announced Wednesday it would give $1 million to create a centre focused on suicide prevention and teen depression at the Douglas.
The centre's objectives will be to detect youth at risk for suicide and depression.
"The biggest difficulty for people to get well or not have mental illness is by not having the stigma around these illnesses and for people to feel free to talk," said Jane Lalonde, president of the Douglas Institute Foundation.
Clinical depression is a factor involved in over 70 per cent of cases of youth suicide and afflicts almost one in five of adolescents.
The hope is that through programs like the centre, suicide will no longer be the second leading cause of Canadian teen deaths, behind road accidents.
