Promoting Health and Wellness to Canadian Youth

Ottawa – October 1, 2007 – Keeping children safe and giving them the tools they need to keep themselves safe are a top priority for the RCMP. This month, RCMP members in your community are actively promoting health and wellness in Canadian schools.

“As part of the RCMP National Youth Strategy, officers across the country are speaking to young people on issues affecting them,” says Inspector Rick Shaw, Officer in Charge of the RCMP National Youth Services. “Research has clearly shown a link between self-esteem and good decision-making amongst young people. We believe that improved health and wellness will lead to higher self esteem, so for the month of October, we're providing students with facts to help them make healthy life choices.”

deal.org, the RCMP’s youth engagement program, features useful information on health in the Knowzone section of its website www.deal.org.

The website page on health is divided into three categories: diseases and conditions, mental health, and sexually transmitted diseases. Youth are encouraged to monitor their own health and consult physicians before issues get out of control. This also applies to mental illness which can sometimes be very difficult to detect and can sometimes lead to other problems.

Youth has been an RCMP strategic priority since 1999. The RCMP has developed a number of proactive measures to support young people in becoming mature, law-abiding citizens and to keep them from committing crimes or becoming victims of crime. The National Youth Officer Program and deal.org are two of these initiatives.

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For more information, please contact:

RCMP National Media Relations
(613) 993-2999