A new partnership aims to improve mental health services for underserviced youth and their families in Windsor-Essex.
The groups are all youth and families who have experienced barriers to accessing care in the past and include those in the Indigenous, LGBTQ+, Francophone, Immigrant, refugee, disabled, and racialized communities.
It's called the Family Navigation Program for Child and Youth Mental Health. Two family navigators, a social worker from Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Maryvale Adolescent and Family Services, will work with those families.
"Windsor-Essex is one of the most diverse communities in Canada," said Executive Lead Terra Cadeau. "We know that mental health concerns affect everyone, regardless of background, socioeconomic status, culture, or ethnicity. The Family Navigation Program for children, youth, and their families will respond to the diverse needs of our community while understanding the values, beliefs, and traditions of these underserviced groups."
The program does not provide diagnosis, treatment, case management, or crisis services, but it does help those groups navigate the system.
"Unfortunately, we have heard that oftentimes the first experiences with our mental health system by the youth and families we meet have been a hospital emergency department. That can be overwhelming and scary," said Lisa LaRocque, one of the Family Navigators. "This is simply because they don't know where or who else to call."
The team has already begun outreach to those families so they can listen and better learn their needs.
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's Department of Research and Evaluation will evaluate outcomes.