Plans to establish a one-stop shop for youth mental health and social services are coming along, with one rural hub open, but efforts have been slowed down by COVID-19 pandemic-related issues.
“As a mother, I think we’re going very slowly. But as a professional, I realize we’re trying to transform the way we deliver care in our area and it takes time,” Cyndy Moffat Forsyth, director of the Integrated Youth Services Network Wellington & Guelph (IYSN), told GuelphToday. “Parents are desperate to find services for their children.”
The IYSN will offer a variety of services, ranging from mental health and substance use, education, employment, training, housing and other community and social services, peer services, outreach, and system navigation services.
The plan, first forward up by the Rotary Club of Guelph, has been in the works for the past year couple of years with a vision is to create an integrated network of services that supports youth between the ages of 12 to 26.
“Through no fault of anyone’s, the system we’re living with right now is very fragmented and siloed,” Moffat Forsyth said. “None of these agencies talk to each other. They’ve all built their own systems and their protocols … and no one would talk to each other. What we’re trying to do is bring everyone together.”
As it is right now, a youth seeking assistance would have to find their way to each of the service providers and repeatedly explain why they need help, which Moffat Forsyth mentioned can be a traumatic experience.
“We want to build a system and study it to see if it can be scaled up across Canada,” she added.
Initially, the seven sites – three in rural Wellington County and four in Guelph – were expected to be opened this year, but they’re all at various stages of development. Since March, 12 virtual youth engagement sessions have been held to gather their input about the set-up and design of the sites and their services.
With greater need in rural communities, the immediate focus was put on getting those sites operational, Moffat Forsyth explained.
“It’s our priority for two reasons. One is the need up in Wellington County. Two is they’re smaller sites so it’s easier to get them up and running, and for us to work out the kinks before we launch the larger sites.”
The Fergus location – inside the Skyline Community Hub, part of the former Zellers/Target store on Tower Street South – opened on Sept. 8. That “mini-hub” is being led by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre Wellington (BBBS) and includes five meeting rooms as well as a commercial kitchen.
"It's been really, really exciting here," said Wendy Douglas, youth engagement coordinator for BBBS. She notes the facility launched on March 13 but was quickly closed due to the pandemic, though virtual meetings continued to occur. "Kids can come in and really relax, feel like they've got a safe place to spend some time and start to connect again.
"We're really staring to see some traffic through here," Douglas said, adding pandemic-related restrictions still apply.
Services there are expected to increase in February or March. Work is underway to convert 6,000 square feet across the hall, donated by Skyline Group of Companies, into recreational space, with an office for a nurse practitioner. Skyline has also pledged to cover up to $500,000 of the cost to convert that space.
“I think it speaks to the need," Moffat Forsyth said of the donation.
An Erin location is expected to be up and running at 10 Thompson Cres., near Erin District High School, by mid-October, spearheaded by East Wellington Community Services. Officials there are currently doing one-on-one sessions with youth, Moffat Forsyth said, either virtually or physically distance but in person.
The last of the rural locations is expected to be ready in December or early January in Palmerston. That site, on Cumberland Street across from Norwell District Secondary School, is being led by Mapleton and Minto townships. Students from both municipalities attend the high school.
Three of the Guelph sites are slated to open in late 2022 or early 2023.
Those include the planned Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington’s planned Centre for Children's Developmental & Mental Health Services on Woolwich Street – the site of the former McDonald's restaurant. A four-storey building is in the works there, with 8,000 square feet on the main floor dedicated to the IYSN.
A 6,000 square foot addition is planned for the Guelph YMCA/YWCA facility on Woodland Glen Drive in order to house a IYSN site there.
Also, the University of Guelph will be networked into the system at a new structure to be built.
The fourth Guelph location, at Shelldale Family Gateway on Shelldale Crescent, has been operating in a similar fashion to the IYSN for the past 25 years, Moffat Forsyth noted.
“It’s a natural fit to have them part of this,” she said.
Though she hoped the network would be further along by now, Moffat Forsyth believes the various partner agencies have already “moved mountains in a short period of time” to bring it as far as they have.
“I look at the partnership table and the people that sit around that table, how they’re thinking outside the box, really trying to look at ways to transform how we’re delivering services,” she said. “We’ve come leaps and bounds.”
The partnership table includes representatives of the agencies housing IYNS sites, as well as the Rotary Club of Guelph and Guelph Community Foundation.
