February 2, 2023 (Toronto) - CBC Music and CAMH, Canada’s largest mental health hospital and leading mental health research centre, have partnered to launch the 2023 CBC Music Playlist Challenge and ask students across Canada, “What music moves your mood?”
“The Playlist Challenge is an engaging way to have thoughtful conversations with youth on current issues,” said Kai Black, Executive Producer, CBC Music Special Projects.
The 2021 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) reports that more than half of Ontario students (59%) feel depressed about the future because of COVID-19, and about half of students (47%) grades seven to 12 indicate a moderate-to-serious level of psychological distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression). The time is now to have conversations with youth about their mental health.
“With the help of CAMH, this year’s Playlist Challenge uses music to help address growing concerns around youth mental health and delivers useful mental health resources straight to classrooms across the country.”
The CBC Music Playlist Challenge encourages students to discover music by Canadian artists and reinforces the importance of music as part of a well-rounded education. This year the Playlist Challenge invites youth to build a 15-song playlist based on music that impacts or ‘moves’ their mood to bring the topic of mental health to classrooms in a way that’s accessible to young people, especially for those unsure where to get started.
“The involvement of music in a student’s daily life can help them reconnect to their feelings and emotions,” said Dr. Amy Gajaria, Child, Youth and Family Program Psychiatrist, CAMH. “Music can help shift mood and how they’re feeling, to help improve overall mental health and emotional wellbeing.”
Through a series of guided discussions and activities, students participating in the Playlist Challenge will learn how music can impact mood, explore their understanding of emotional wellbeing and mental health, how it impacts how they feel and what to do about it. Participating classrooms will be entered into a draw to win a virtual discussion on mental health with Dr. Amy Gajaria, and a virtual concert with TALK – the Ottawa singer and TikTok viral sensation whose hit song “Run Away to Mars” has become a worldwide mental health anthem wracking up over 110 million streams to date. In a recent interview with CBC Music, TALK credits music for helping during challenging times.
“Music is the way I process complex thoughts and emotions”, TALK shared. “Any time I’ve struggled with my mental health, writing and listening to music has been the best and only real way to pull me out of the dark.”
For more information on the 2023 CBC Music Playlist Challenge, please visit cbc.ca/music.
About the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital and a world-leading research centre in this field. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental illness and addiction. CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. For more information, please visit camh.ca or follow @CAMHnews on Twitter.
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Hayley Clark, Manager, Media Strategy
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
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