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June 1, 2026, Calgary, Alta. — CHEO is honoured to receive the 2026 Children’s Healthcare Canada Health Communications Award that acknowledges our innovative approach to supporting youth mental health through digital storytelling.
The award recognizes CHEO’s YouTube series, “This is what it feels like / Voici ce que l’on ressent,” created in partnership with YouTube Canada and Ottawa’s own Juno-nominated artist Jamie Fine to bring trusted, evidence-based mental health information directly to young people.
The bilingual series explores six of the most searched mental health challenges on YouTube—anxiety, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, substance use and behavioural addictions — and offers young audiences the benefit of Jamie’s lived experience with tips from clinical experts to create content that is relatable, accessible and grounded in lived experience.
“This award reflects the importance of meeting youth in the digital spaces they already use, with information that is safe, compassionate and grounded in real experience,” said Vera Etches, CHEO President and CEO. “The project shows how combining clinical expertise, storytelling and lived experience can help support young people earlier and change how care begins.”
The project brings together clinicians, creatives and youth voices, and demonstrates a new approach to care — one that helps reduce stigma, address misinformation and connect young people to support before they need urgent services.