OTTAWA -- Finding the right help for mental health can be a challenge, especially at a difficult time.

1Call1Click.ca is a new service that hopes to make finding the right mental health care for kids and youth a lot easier.

The service was launched by the Kids Come First Health Team, which coordinates more than 20 organizations offering mental health and addiction care for children, youth, and their families in eastern Ontario.

“This concept is really just unburdening them from the uncertainty, and all of the time and energy that it takes to search for the services that they need and to connect them to the right care almost right away,” says Joanne Lowe, Executive Director of Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa and VP for Mental Health and Addiction at CHEO. “1Call1Click.ca is really here to help on their very first call.

“What you get is actually a very, very supportive professional person at the other end who will help you navigate the service system,” says Lowe.

“To hear that yes, you have called the right place, and yes, we are here help, they will no longer need to know who provides what service, or question if they have called the right place. The staff at 1Call1Click.ca will do this for them,” says Deena Shorkey, Director of Community Child and Youth Mental Health Services at the Cornwall Hospital.

Steph Dinsdale is a youth advisor and says this service will make a big difference.

“It’s not only going change lives, it’s really going to save lives.”

You can access the service by calling 613-260-2360 or 1-877-377-7775 (toll free for eastern Ontario), or fill out an online form at 1Call1Click.ca

Even primary care providers looking for the right care for their patients can use the service.