Service Structure

Child and Youth Mental Health provides a wide range of community-based specialized mental health services to mentally ill children and their families and to those at risk of or vulnerable to mental illness. Two complementary child and youth mental health service components have been established.

First, a network of Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD) mental health staff and sessional psychiatrists function on specialized teams or in integrated child and family centres. Three contracted agencies in Prince George, Powell River and Vancouver/Richmond offer services and supports equivalent to MCFD staffed programs. Consistent with a multi-disciplinary approach to service provision, MCFD program staff typically include psychologists, social workers, counselors with masters degrees, and nurses.

Second, an extensive program of contracted service agencies extends the MCFD staffed programs by providing specialized and mental health-related community-based services. While these services are funded directly by MCFD, they can be funded jointly with other ministries, and non-government sources, to achieve a desired level of service integration in communities. They are designed to complement or augment staffed services, and offer a flexible way of responding to varying regional needs.

Within MCFD staffed services and contracted agency equivalents there are two major categories of service as follows:

• Direct Clinical Services are provided to a specific, identifiable and registered client or to others involved in direct support of this client. These services include intake, screening and referral, assessment and planning, treatment, case management, and clinical consultation. Cases are prioritized according to risk and impairment, with individuals who are suicidal or experiencing extreme impaired functioning due to acute mental illness having highest priority.
  
  
• Targeted Community Support is comprised of a range of services intended to support other service providers (e.g., school counselors, family physicians) who may be working directly with individuals not registered with CYMHS or contracted agency equivalent programs and other community services and programs. Targeted Community Development may include mental health consultation, program consultation, service system planning, community coordination, and education and health promotion, all targeted to children's mental health needs.