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If your child is in crisis, where do you turn?

In an interview, Dr. Lina Guzzo, director of clinical services at the Child and Family Centre in Sudbury, acknowledges there are gaps in the system.
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The recent case of a missing teen in Sudbury, and her mother's comments that early mental-health intervention could have prevented the heartache the family is going through, thrust the issue of families and mental health into the spotlight. File photo.

In an interview, Dr. Lina Guzzo, director of clinical services at the Child and Family Centre in Sudbury, acknowledges there are gaps in the system. However, she said the centre offers a range of programs aimed at pairing people who need help with services that have been proven to be effective.

They range from intensive programs for people in crisis, normally accessed through Health Sciences North, to a new walk-in program held one day a week.

Clinical manager Bev Maloney said the walk-in service is a way for people to see a counsellor quickly. It takes place every Thursday from 12:30-8 p.m.

"It's same-day service," Maloney said. "You just walk in. We have two clinicians on staff who do nothing but that.

"Our target is, of course, youth, and the service is open to all parents who want to come in with their children. But it's especially targeted to those youth who might be struggling with anxiety and depression, relationship issues."

The response has been excellent, she said, and feedback from clients who have been helped has been positive. The program is being reviewed, but Maloney said it will continued, “guaranteed.

"We're very pleased with the program," she said. “It is an opportunity for people to get immediate service, without having to wait for an intake and sit on a wait list."

Guzzo said programs are grouped together into “buckets” in which people within certain demographics and ranges of need can access services. While more intensive services are offered at the hospital, there are programs at area high schools with classes dedicated to kids with mental-health challenges.

That program is offered in 23 area schools, split between the Catholic and public French and English school boards, mostly aimed at children ages 6-12. Although a few of them are aimed at high school kids.

"They're targeted at kids when there's an imminent risk of school breakdown, for whatever reason," Guzzo said.

"For high school, we also have our school-based mental health ... that provides some immediate counselling service to highschoolers,” Maloney said. “We know that youth have struggles around anxiety, depression, so we have dedicated clinicians who work right in the schools."

There are also in-home services, where a clinician will go into the home to assess what approach would work best for that family.

"Sometimes parents don't know what to do to parent in a very specific way,” she said. “And that's where the child and youth worker will go in the home and provide that service, and work with the parent. Not so much with the child, but with the parent around the strategies they need to be able to work with their own child."

The focus is on improving and developing the parent-child relationship so they can function and progress on their own.

"It's about empowering the parents and teaching them the skills and techniques in order to help them parent their child,” Guzzo said. “Because eventually, the (clinician) will not be in the home and it will be up to the parent. We really don't want to create a dependency."

In terms of programs for parents, she said the Triple P program (positive parenting program) has been very successful.

Parents can enroll directly, or they're referred into the program by a counsellor. It offers insights into why their children may be having behavioural issues, and strategies for addressing them and preventing the family from breaking down.

"It's a fabulous program (that's) proven to be quite effective," Maloney said.

Other services include a program for kids with serious mental health challenges who are in trouble with the law; post-trauma treatment programs; a program aimed at helping youth with eating disorders; another aimed at helping kids who start fires; and one linked to the Children's Aid Society that offers in-home and office-based intensive counselling for families in danger of breakdown.

So where do the gaps in services exist?

Guzzo said when mental-health funding was been reallocated over the years, certain resources were lost. For example, there is no residential treatment facility for troubled youths anywhere in Northern Ontario.

"We don't have residential treatment programs available to our population here in the Sudbury/Manitoulin district area,” she said. “Our clients who require that level of intensity of service have to leave the community to obtain those services."

There's also not a lot of services available for high-need, high-risk clients with complex issues, or for people who have been hospitalized because of mental-health concerns and now are ready to integrate back into the community.

"There's been reallocation of funding and monies that have impacted the way services are delivered and that has left some gaps there," Guzzo said. "We are looking at how to manage those, but they are gaps."

While there are wait times, she said about two-thirds of clients (they helped about 1,700 people in the last year) get help within three months, while about a quarter of them wait as long as six months.

The Child and Family Centre has about 80 staff, of whom 30 are clinicians who work with youth and family directly. Between time off, sick leave, training and turnover, there are periods when wait times are longer. But Guzzo said it's hard to gauge whether the waits are excessive.

"It's a really good question — what is the reasonable amount of time for people to have to wait?” she said. “The short answer would be that in a perfect world, they shouldn't have to wait. But given the demand for service, and the resources (available), clients can expect to wait.

"But we're very mindful of trying to deliver the right service at the right time at the right place."

And demand is increasing, Guzzo said, as the public and governments are becoming much more aware of mental health and the importance of getting help as quickly as possible.

"The consumer is more aware of their own well-being, of their own mental health,” she said. "So the number of clients accessing crisis (services) is increasing, the number of clients trying to access our services is pretty consistent. Overall, in the system, the demand is increasing."

The next new initiative for the centre is to reach out to clients to find out what they want, Maloney said.

"We're getting input about what they need from us, rather than us saying, OK, this is what we have to offer," she said. "We really want to hear from families, from youth — what do you need? What do you want to see? Where do they see gaps (in services) and how we can help."

"We're trying to develop mechanisms for families and youth to really have a voice and input on how we move forward and how we shape the delivery of programs," Guzzo added.

 

Quickfax: Mental health services

 


 

  • The Child and Family Centre offers a range of services for youth and parents who are in crisis or just facing challenges in the home. 
  • The centre served about 1,700 clients in the Greater Sudbury/Manitoulin District in the last year. 
  • People with the most intensive needs are help through programs offered at Health Sciences North. 
  • For people with less severe needs, two-thirds are able to access help within three months, although one-quarter wait as long as six months. 
  • For more information on the centre, the programs it offers and how to access them, go to ChildandFamilyCentre.on.ca, call 1-800-815-7126 or email: [email protected]. 

 


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