By TERRY PUGH
Four years ago, the Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth issued a report detailing the critical need for expanded mental health services for children and teenagers.
The report, entitled ‘Desperately Waiting’, noted young people contemplating suicide are often unable to access appropriate mental health supports when they need them. The report said too many young people are falling through the cracks, and concluded that “the profound impact of poor mental health of children and youth in Saskatchewan can sadly lead to the gravest of outcomes.”
The report shone a light on an issue that an accredited Saskatchewan-based agency has been working to alleviate for many years.
“There is a very serious gap in mental health services for children and youth,” said Ranch Ehrlo Director of Clinical Services Vance Heaney in an interview October 14. “As a coach and minor hockey president, I know of families whose kids needed access to the psychiatric unit in hospital, and they have either not gotten in or they were admitted for a night or two; but then they were discharged because the hospital needed the bed. These families were then faced with the hard choice of either temporarily signing over their parental rights to access child welfare services in order for their child to receive the appropriate level of residential treatment; or their other option was for them to take a leave of absence from their job to stay home to look after their kid.
Rather than let the ‘Desperately Waiting’ report gather dust on a shelf, Ranch Ehrlo board members and management took up the gauntlet and began exploring ways of implementing one of the report’s recommendations; specifically “a middle-tier care option to provide therapeutic residential placements for youth with mental health needs that are greater than can be managed in their home and/or with outpatient services, but who do not meet the criteria for acute psychiatric inpatient treatment.”
Earlier this year, Ranch Ehrlo applied to the RM of Corman Park for approval to establish a secure six-bed intensive treatment facility to alleviate the burden on acute care services such as the Dube Centre and the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Emergency Department.
That approval was granted by Corman Park council at a meeting on Tuesday, October 20.
But, the approval wasn’t given lightly. It came only after councillors were satisfied the venture would be beneficial to the community and not have any negative impact on the area. The fact that many neighbours of the Ranch Ehrlo campus, as well as the University of Saskatchewan Department of Psychiatry and the Corman Park Police Service, expressed support for the project, was critical. The Warman RCMP detachment also provided a letter of support saying they were happy with the progress Ranch Ehrlo has made in their joint efforts to reduce the calls and work together on this collaboratively.
“I think there’s a misconception out there about the nature of this new facility,” said Heaney. “This home that we’re looking at is not just another residential group home. This is a specialized mental health program that would be a step down from the hospital, and where a child or youth could get the treatment and care they need without the parents having to make that difficult choice of signing over their parental rights or quitting their job.”
Heaney said the specialized mental health care program would be designed to help children and youth who have experienced significant complex trauma and who meet certain criteria. The facility will also be secure in a way that protects both the child and the community, he added.
“This program is specialized in terms of its design and also the access to it,” he said. “When you have eight, nine or ten-year-olds who have just experienced significant trauma; who have been abused and neglected, you don’t put them in a locked facility. Nobody would ever put their children or grandchildren in a locked facility because of things adults did to them.
“However, this program is geared toward kids that are at risk, experiencing suicidal ideation and who could climb out a window and potentially harm themselves. That’s not a risk that anybody wants to endure. So the facility itself will be designed differently, with environmental features built in where they wouldn’t be able to leave as easily, or at all. The windows, for example, will be different. The staffing model will also be more intensive with more mental health professionals working with a small number of kids.”
Heaney said psychiatric services would be built in to the program, with a psychiatrist from the University of Saskatchewan working with the children on a weekly basis.
“This program is designed specifically for youth with a higher level of need,” said Heaney. “These are kids from many different backgrounds that are going to identify that they should be in a hospital, but there is no bed available. They don’t just need medication, they need intensive psychiatric treatment, and they need a safe, secure place where they can build relationships, attachments and trust.”
Heaney, who lives in the area, said Ranch Ehrlo is committed to ensuring there is no risk to the community. Over the past two years, Ranch Ehrlo officials have met regularly with both the RCMP and Corman Park Police to develop protocols related to kids in the regular group homes who leave the premises without permission or supervision. The results have been extremely positive, according to the last couple meetings with the Warman and Martensville RCMP.
“The last thing I’d be willing to do is support a program that wasn’t in the best interests of the community and its safety,” said Heaney.
Ranch Ehrlo Director of Clinical Services Vance Heaney