One in Three Young Canadians Use AI for Mental Health Support

One in three young Canadians surveyed by the national youth mental-health network Jack.org says they use generative artificial intelligence at least once a month for mental-health support, according to new research released this week ahead of World Mental Health Day. Perhaps more revealing is what happens next: nearly half of the young Canadians who use the tools have told no one about it — a silence the report suggests may reflect a new, compounding stigma, where admitting you asked a chatbot for help feels as hard as asking for help in the first place.

The findings come from New Technology, Familiar Barriers, a national survey of 395 young people connected to Jack.org. Among respondents, 78 per cent said they had encountered at least one barrier to accessing mental-health support — including cost, wait times and stigma — suggesting the turn toward AI says as much about blocked access as it does about new technology.

Asked what they actually use the tools for, three out of five young Canadians said they turn to AI to navigate specific situations — most often social relationships such as friendships, romance and family dynamics — while many also seek help with academic challenges and self-care strategies, as reported by Fav of Canada. More than two in five treat AI like any other online tool, similar to a search engine. Close to a fifth uses it as a personal journal to process and organize thoughts, and roughly one in nine said it feels like "talking to a real person who understands me," while a similar share could not describe the experience at all.

Why Young Canadians Are Turning to AI for Support

The appeal is straightforward: availability and freedom from judgment. For young Canadians facing long waitlists or session fees they cannot afford, a free chatbot that answers in the middle of the night can feel like the only open door. The report's authors argue those longstanding barriers are likely driving adoption — the technology is new, but the obstacles pushing young Canadians toward it are familiar.

The secrecy worries researchers most. When friends, parents and clinicians cannot see that a chatbot is involved, nobody can check what it advised — and young Canadians who feel they must hide both their struggles and the tools they use to cope end up doubly isolated. Michael Braithwaite, president and CEO of Jack.org, said understanding how these tools affect young people — and talking about it openly — is the only way forward: "We don't want them to feel like they have to figure this all out alone," he said.

The Pattern Extends Beyond Canada

A parallel American finding sharpens the picture. Research published this month in JAMA Pediatrics found that just under one in five Americans aged 12 to 21 had used an AI chatbot for mental-health advice. The Canadian figure runs higher, but researchers on both sides of the border are asking the same question: is the chatbot a bridge to real care, or a signal that care is out of reach? For anyone weighing whether to try one, the report's answer is mixed. A chatbot can be a private, judgment-free first step — a place to rehearse a hard conversation or organize thoughts before talking to someone. Yet privacy cuts both ways: the tool does not notice a crisis, does not follow up, and cannot be questioned by anyone who cares because nobody knows it is there. Young people who want human support can reach free services such as Kids Help Phone, which offers round-the-clock counselling across the country.

What Young Canadians Should Check First

Clinicians urge caution about what the tools are actually built to do. Dr. Peter Selby, an addiction medicine physician and senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, noted that generative AI tools "are meant to keep people engaged" and are "not designed to push back" — they can flatter a user into feeling heard without ever challenging them to grow. His advice for young Canadians: treat anything a chatbot says as a starting point for a human conversation. "Discuss what you found with a human, a real human, a trusted human," he said — whether that means a friend, a school counsellor, a parent or a doctor.

More of our reporting on youth and mental health in this country lives on the Canada topic page.