Thanks to stretches of milder winter weather, construction is moving ahead smoothly on the new Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health set to open this fall in the northwest community of Hounsfield Heights. Youth and family advisors continue to help shape interior design work and furniture choices to ensure everything looks and feels warm and welcoming. They’re also providing input on the Centre’s new name which is expected to be finalized this summer.
Updated: Mar 24, 2022
When it opens this fall, the Centre for Child & Adolescent Mental Health will be unlike any other in Canada, providing three crucial new services: a dedicated walk-in clinic, an intensive treatment program, and Calgary’s first mental health day hospital – all supporting youth and families in our community.
You helped us build it, now you can help us name it!
Alberta Health Services has launched a short survey to hear suggestions from the community that made this Centre possible by funding its construction.
It takes less than 10 minutes to share your thoughts and there will be opportunities to join one of two focus groups taking place this month. The survey closes January 27.
Add your voice to the conversation today.
Crews are busy working as construction on the new Centre for Child & Adolescent Mental Health continues. A large portion of the hill on site has been excavated to make room for the Centre, shoring walls have been installed, and crews have finished pouring concrete slabs on the parkade level, main and second floors. It is anticipated that the third level will be poured before the New Year. Construction completion is currently expected to occur next summer, with the first patients to be seen at the Centre in late fall of 2022.
As we eagerly await the start of its three new mental health services for young people, we know the new Centre is one piece of a much larger puzzle. Your generous support is helping to ensure critical new initiatives can begin in advance of the Centre opening. Thanks to you, we can further advance care and reduce the suffering of families in our community.
(Highlighted programs currently need community investment.)
RESEARCH IN ACTION | COMMUNITY | ENHANCEMENTS IN CARE |
CanREACH | Peer Support | |
Brain Stimulation | Mental Health Literacy in Schools | I AM SAFE – Suicide Intervention |
e-Mental Health | Medical/Psychiatric Unit | |
| | |
| | Functional Family Therapy |
| |
The urgent need for mental health services to help youth and young adults in Canada has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Experts say the prevalence of addiction and mental health problems rises progressively as teens transition to adulthood. Often young people don’t know where to turn for help since they don’t see themselves fitting in either pediatric or adult settings. Forty-five percent of young people stop accessing care during this period. Left untreated, mental illness during this pivotal phase of life can lead to chronic mental and physical health issues, job insecurity, housing and food insecurity, consequences involving the justice system, shortened lifespan, long-term suffering for those affected and their families and a negative impact on society as a whole.
Recognizing the need to address the unique developmental needs of 16 to 24-year-olds, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, in partnership with Alberta Health Services and the University of Calgary, is supporting one of the most significant changes our mental health system has seen in its history.
This initiative will result in a complete redesign of how the system responds to the needs of Emerging Adults.
In the immediate term, additional family counsellors and nursing staff have been recruited to respond to COVID-related increases in demand, with the goal to reduce the Emerging Adult Treatment Centre waitlist from 12 months to 3 months.
In addition, a “unified protocol” is now being offered to everyone seeking care regardless of an official diagnosis. This brief cognitive behavioural intervention enables treatment to begin as soon as possible and has proven to be beneficial to patients suffering from anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The team has also introduced single-session, pop-in therapy as a way to address immediate needs in a timely, more accessible way for this specific population.
Moving forward, with input from families, a team of clinicians and researchers will research, re-examine and redesign services and treatments to specifically meet the needs of 16- to 24-year-olds. The team will lead a complete cultural shift around how the system responds to these young people and, in doing so, create a critical bridge between the pediatric and adult care models. Their goals are to build clinical capacity and expertise across the care continuum, contribute to crucial mental health research for emerging adults, and shorten the time it takes to turn innovative ideas into positive impacts on health outcomes.
Ultimately, this will include the creation of a new purpose-driven centre – a blend of virtual and physical space – that will provide nation-leading research-intensive care tailored for emerging adults and their families.
If you would like to support this revolutionary change to care for young adults in our community, make a donation today. If you would like more information, please email us at philanthropy@achf.com
