In Scarborough and East York in the GTA, there can often be a lack of timely and accessible early intervention supports available for youth before they reach the point of crisis. Through focus groups, youth in Scarborough and East York identified several barriers to accessing mental health services, including services being too far from their neighbourhood, stigma, and a lack of comfort with attending ‘formal’ or structured mental health services.

Consultations with diverse groups of youth and stakeholders highlighted the need to offer low-barrier mental health supports in a non-traditional space that youth attend naturally (i.e. the local community centre or library, etc.).

What are we doing about it?

With support from the Provincial System Support Program, the Scarborough East York Service Collaborative (SEY) partnered with the Malvern Library to develop a series of Wellness Workshops for youth at The SPOT Youth Centre, in Malvern. The three foundational components of this intervention include:

1. Providing supports in a location accessible to youth: The Service Collaborative identified The SPOT at the Malvern Library as the location for this intervention. The SPOT is an accessible youth-centered, arts-based community hub co-located at the Malvern Library that offers a range of programming for Malvern youth ages 13-25.

2. Offering low-barrier Wellness Workshops: The Wellness Workshops focus on different aspects of mental health and wellbeing (e.g., stress at school, developing healthy relationships). These sessions will be facilitated by SEY SC community partners, with workshop content based on the partner agency’s area of expertise. The workshops aim to incorporate arts-based components to align with the values of The SPOT.

3. Mental Health First Aid training program: The SEY SC is also rolling out comprehensive Mental Health First Aid for Adults who participate in youth training programs across the region to further support this intervention’s early intervention approach. This training equips individuals who interact with youth in a variety of capacities to better recognize and respond to a youth with mental health concerns

Exploration
Installation
Initial Implementation
Full Implementation

?What's this?

Exploration

Feedback from initial stakeholder consultations and focus groups identified the main system gap in the region as a lack of timely and accessible mental health services for youth in the region. The SEY SC decided to move ahead with the development of a local walk-in service with mental health supports for youth. The SEY SC also developed a smaller Service Collaborative Implementation Team (SCIT) to focus on the development of the intervention.

The SCIT identified a strong need for early intervention and low-barrier services, which included a Mental Health First Aid training program.

Installation

The SC and SCIT identified approximately 15 sites in SEY that youth attend (e.g., drop-in centre, rec centre) as a potential host site for the intervention. In collaboration with the SCIT, a comprehensive site selection process was conducted and The SPOT at the Malvern Library was identified as the host site for the intervention.

The structure of the walk-in services to be provided was also finalized in this stage. Feedback from youth focus groups indicated that walk-in, structured counselling was too intensive for The SPOT. Instead it was recommended that group-based mental health workshops should be provided. As a result, the focus of the intervention shifted to offering Wellness Workshops, which would provide a low-barrier introduction to mental health and wellness topics at The SPOT.

At the same time, the “Mental Health First Aid for Adults who Interact with Youth” process was started, with the selection and training of eight local instructors.

Initial Implementation

Partnerships with local service providers who would offer the initial Wellness Workshops at The SPOT were finalized. The first two groups of Wellness Workshops are currently underway and focus on a) mental wellness and social media, and b) wellness and music therapy. Preliminary results from the workshops will inform the direction of the future Wellness Workshop series.

The MHFA instructors rolled out the initial wave of MHFA trainings across Scarborough and East York. The development of a MHFA Network of Champions supported the coordination of training efforts, and ensured that the trainings had a broad reach across the area.

Full Implementation

The Mental Health First Aid training program is in full implementation, with over 350 adults who interact with youth in the community trained to date. There is significant spread in the MHFA training; course participants represented a number of different program areas, including: youth services, education, community services, public libraries, settlement services, early childhood development, employment, foster care, counselling, and public housing. MHFA training is now in full implementation, while the pilot Wellness Workshops are still be evaluated.

How do we know it works?

I have expanded my knowledge-base about the signs of mental health issues in youth and how to engage in conversations with clients
— Social worker/MHFA trainee

I use it frequently to support students experiencing different mental health issues and to direct them to different community-based supports
— Teacher/MHFA trainee

350

the number of adults who interact with children who have trained in MHFA

problem solving, communicating with others, and setting goals from the initial wellness.
— Wellness workshop evalution

Who is involved?

Malvern Library
Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities
Lifted by Purpose
Toronto District School Board
East Metro Youth Services
Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHFA)

Next steps

Continue engagement with local service providers to offer low-barrier, on-site mental health workshops for youth
Develop an orientation guide for Malvern Library staff and service provider partners working on-site at The SPOT
Transfer coordination of Wellness Workshops to The SPOT Advisory Group

Resources

Evidence brief

CAMH PSSP

Wellness Workshop library program

What is the system challenge?