Windsor should soon have a one-stop shop for school-aged children's mental health services. Windsor Regional Hospital will integrate its Regional Children's Centre with Glengarda Child & Family Services to better care for youngsters between six and 12.
"We wanted to have the best uses of our current resources, because demand has been growing but resources have stayed pretty much the same," Dr. Mary Broga, vice-president of family mental health services at Windsor Regional Hospital, said Friday. "We're looking at one door into the system for this age group and their families. We're looking to make sure that someone will navigate with them as they journey through their services." Broga said the area has historically not had enough child mental health services, especially considering that families of youngsters six to 12 had to figure out which agencies to use.
Kids younger than six go through Children First for special-needs service. Broga said integrating Windsor Regional and Glengarda will save users time and free up mental-health professionals to work more with six-to 12-year-olds. "There will be more services delivered to this age group," Broga said. "We will streamline the system so that parents don't have to tell their story to a series of workers."
Broga said a transition plan must be approved by the two boards but the new system, run under the Regional Children's Centre, could operate by the end of 2012. The Children's Centre currently serves about 1,000 children annually while Glengarda helps about 400.
Alan Goyette, Glengarda's interim executive director, said a lot of work remains but kids should ultimately receive improved service. "It's a tough time," Goyette said. "There are some transition pieces to it. There's some anxiety.
"But there is a legacy with Glengarda that goes back 76 years in this community, started by the Ursuline nuns. And their legacy has always been about doing what's best for kids and families." Goyette said it's too early to say if layoffs will result from the amalgamation, but he still predicts improved mentalhealth care.
"About 20 per cent of kids between zero and 18 years have significant mental-health issues through their childhood," he said. "And certainly there's never enough service to go around. So we decided to do a little bit of dreaming to figure out how we can serve more kids and serve them in a better fashion."