‘The room was packed:’ residents talk youth support at Mental Health Conference

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Residents from across Fort St. John gathered to discuss how to support youth in the community during the 2026 Mental Health Conference. 

The City of Fort St. John hosted the Mental Health Conference on May 21st at the Pomeroy Hotel and Conference Centre from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

According to the City of Fort St. John, the conference “for the adults who support youth every day” explored how families, schools, teams and communities can collaborate to foster resilience and wellbeing while strengthening how they show up for young people. 

Ryan Harvey, communications manager with the City of Fort St. John, said the conference was introduced following past incidents in the community. 

“Certainly recognizing the challenging last several months with some youth suicide and attempts, a rash of them, at the end of 2025 and early 2026,” he said. 

“Then the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge, in speaking with the school district and some other community service organizations, [the City of Fort St. John] felt that the timing was right to put on a conference like this to be able to support our community.” 

 According to Harvey, the conference covered a range of topics.

“We had speakers from all walks of life,” he said. “Started out the day with a couple of speakers sharing some lived experiences.” 

“Then moved into speaking a little bit more on some of the background supports that are available, sleep, some strategies, and some tactics that people can put into real-world practice, whether that’s with their own families or with kids that are under their care, such as clinicians or teachers or coaches.”

Harvey said the conference received a strong response from the community.

“Obviously, recognizing that we put [the conference] on a fairly short timeline, a couple of months, the feedback has been terrific so far from attendees,” Harvey said. 

“We were able to get a terrific lineup of speakers to speak, and the room was packed, so it was great to see the community respond to the conference and the positive feedback coming in for sure.” 

This is the first year the city has hosted a mental health conference, but according to Harvey, the city is still deciding whether to host more in the future.