Research is in the works for the possibility of space for youth with mental health issues.
The Bonnyville Child and Adolescent Mental Health Collaborative’s grant application for PolicyWise for Children and Families was approved to explore what a youth hub could look like in town.
Nurse practitioner Chantel Vallee explained to Town of Bonnyville council during their regular meeting on Oct. 22 that the project’s still in the beginning phases.
“We received $10,000 to start exploring what that might look like for our partners. Bonnyville Primary Care Network has put that under our umbrella, and we have somebody allocated to help build that over the next year.”
The funding was received through PolicyWise for Children and Families, an Alberta charity that assists in developing and integrating evidence to inform, identify, and promote effective public policy and service delivery to improve the wellbeing of children, families, and communities.
“The part of the grant that we applied for is to look at capacity and readiness to have a youth hub for mental health services,” detailed Vallee. “What exactly does that look like? We don’t know yet. The whole point of the grant is to explore what that could look like if we have the ability to do something like this. Would it meet our needs? How can we make it happen?”
Once the research is complete, the Bonnyville Child and Adolescent Mental Health Collaborative would develop a strategic plan.
“We would then have to seek funding to sustain whatever this might look like,” Vallee noted.
Vallee also filled council in on their plans to create recreation programming that focuses on children with mental health issues.
"They're not volleyball players, and they're not going to your normal Boys and Girls Club," Vallee said. "These kids have a lot of anxieties, they sometimes have gender issues, whatever it could be but they don't necessarily fit."
The need was brought to their attention when they had requests from attendees of their summer camp.
"There could be model planes that they could work on, small mechanics, cooking, somewhere it's very safe. The kids know the people there. We're working on that, and we've had some discussions with the Bonnyville and District FCSS about that."
An evaluation completed by Alberta Health Services (AHS), which hasn't been released fully, gave the Bonnyville Child and Adolescent Mental Health Collaboration insight into how their patients are fairing.
"The kids referred to our program, they have had less frequent returns to the emergency room, less self harm, increased school function, and social function. To us, those are huge items," Vallee expressed.
A piece of feedback they received from the evaluation was about follow ups after discharge from their program. Vallee said a strategy is being developed to check-in with youth even after they've left the program.
