Community Mental Health Services

Saint John

A wide range of services are available for children, adults, and seniors who experience mental health problems that cause difficulties in their daily living. Services include individual, family and/or group interventions, consultation/liaison with other professionals, as well as psycho educational and community development programs. Referral may be made by self, family, friend, family doctor, school, court, or other agencies. Services are free, confidential, and, on request, bilingual. Emergency services are available on a 24-hour basis. Outreach programs are offered throughout the Saint John area.

Programs

Adult Long-term Program

Vision

The Adult Long-term Program provides therapeutic services and effectively partners with the client, family and community to enhance the quality of life as we live together with the challenges of severe and persistent mental illness

Mission

The Adult Long-term Program, a multidisciplinary team within the Mental Health Centre, Saint John, strives to improve, restore, promote and maintain the mental health and emotional well being of clients with severe and persistent mental illness, and the families of clients by:

• Ongoing assessment and treatment, education and support services
• Enhancement of clients' strengths and abilities while respecting lifestyle choices
• Collaboration with clients, families, allied professionals and agencies, and the community at large
• Advocacy at the individual and system level

Mandate

The Mental Health Centre Adult Long-term Program offers a range of essential and ongoing services for the treatment, support, and maintenance of clients suffering from severe mental illness and resulting functional limitations.

Program Goals

• Reduce symptomatology and consequences of impairments that result from mental illness providing assessment, treatment, and monitoring services
• Psychosocial rehabilitation is provided by a multidisciplinary team to:
• Facilitate community integration and the achievement of an optimal quality of life
• Reduce frequency and duration of relapse by medication monitoring, crisis prevention and response; and the adequacy of income and housing
• Increase capability to manage stress and functional impairment
• Maximize client empowerment in the way services and supports are offered
• Demystify and reduce the stigma of mental illness in the client’s community
• Support client advocacy and rights protection
• Promote client participation in planning and delivery of services

Target Group

The program is for individuals 19 years of age and older who demonstrate the following:

• Persistent and recurrent psychiatric, social and emotional problems with an Axis I diagnosis of major mental illness such as schizophrenia, mood disorders and/or concurrent substance related disorders
• Early onset psychosis

Clients are served by one of the following two teams, based on level of need and degree of stability using a model of Intensive Case Management.

• Collaborative Assessment Treatment Team (CATT)
• Client engagement
• Assessment and treatment for clients in the initial phase of their illness
• Intensive case management and support of clients’ complex needs
• Higher staff-to-client ratio
• Team Advancing Client Capacities (TACC)
• Ongoing engagement in rehabilitation
• Focus on maintaining ongoing treatment and rehabilitation for client in the more stable phase of their illness
• Case management, monitoring and support

Note: referrals for all services can be made by calling the Community Mental Health Centre at 658-3737.

Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is provided by a multidisciplinary team in a manner that is consistent with the client's needs. Clients who are struggling with the symptoms of mental illness as well as the long term effects of their mental illness are supported through Medical, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Worker, Psychological and Human Service Counselor intervention. Team members will provide assessment, treatment, and follow-up. Team members will also assist by connecting clients with recreational opportunities in the community and will advocate for entitlements such as those related to housing, income assistance and health cards. Education related to illness, treatment and recovery are also provided.

Clients who can benefit from our Open Door Club are also welcome to do so. The Open Door Club offers a variety of work, social and recreational activities in a welcoming atmosphere that is located in a central location that is separate from the Community Mental Health Centre.

Services to Families

Strengthening Families Together is a 10 session national education program designed specifically for family members and friends of people with a mental health illness. This program is offered in Region 2 on a regular basis, including family members as facilitators, along with mental health professionals. Each 2-hour session focuses on a specific issue related to living with mental illness. The sessions include: What is mental illness; Schizophrenia; Mood and Anxiety Disorders; Coping as a Family; Treating Mental Illness; Understanding the Mental Health System; Mental Illness, Addictions, and Criminal Justice; Living with Mental Illness and Striving for Change.

Strengthening Families Together offers an opportunity to discuss daily challenges with useful and up-to-date information about mental illness, treatment options, causes, research and mental health services available to diminish the stigma of diagnosis. It also helps people develop problem solving, coping and communication skills, and the know-how to develop their own support groups.

Services to Clients with Both Mental Illness and Addiction/Substance Abuse Problems

Clients who are struggling with their illness often turn to drugs or alcohol. As this can compound the problem, assessment and treatment is provided to those clients who want and need help with these issues. Therapy is done either individually or in a group setting.

Mental Health Court

www.mentalhealthcourt-sj.com

Senior Mental Health

Program Description

People aged 65 and over comprise 12.5% of the population. Statistics Canada has projected that by 2021 seniors will represent 18.9% of the total population and that by 2041 they will represent 24.9% of the population (Statistics Canada, 2002). The Mental Health Program of RHA2 recognizes that mental health services to older adults requires specialized services. Some mental illnesses are unique to older adults thus may require special consideration in diagnosis as well as in the treatment continuum. For instance, Alzheimer’s disease, one type of dementia, can be associated with psychiatric or severe behavioral management problems.

The seniors’ mental health program is a client and family centered, community based, outreach/inpatient service which provides:

• Complex and comprehensive assessments and specialized treatment
• Consultation to a full range of service providers
• Early intervention
• Liaison/shared care with adult residential settings including nursing homes
• Health promotion, prevention and education
• Advocacy

Goals

All residents of Region 2 have access to an integrated, comprehensive program for the management of seniors’ mental health:

• To ensure the mental health needs of seniors are understood, identified and responded to at the most appropriate service level;
• To ensure health promotion, early intervention and education in seniors’ mental health issues are issues addressed across the continuum of care;
• To establish an integrated service delivery model that will facilitate access to appropriate care in a timely manner with links to long term care (FCSS, Adult Protection), Mobile Mental Health Crisis Service, Extra-Mural Services, Geriatric Medicine, Family Physicians, Community Health Centre

Referral Criteria

This program is designed to respond to individuals:

• 65 years of age or older
• First onset of psychiatric disorder
• New onset or exacerbation of existing psychiatric disorder complicated by the aging process
• Dementia under or over age 65
• Community based services are unable to assess, stabilize and treat

Program Elements

• Community based multidisciplinary team, including Geriatric Psychiatry, nursing, social work, physiotherapy, community support workers, and with access to occupational therapy, psychology, speech/language therapist, recreationist
• Access to acute care services for inpatient psychiatric treatment
• Access to tertiary psychiatric services for longer stay and inpatient treatment

Intake and Acute Team

The Intake and Acute Team offers service to individuals in emotional distress caused by a psychiatric disorder or a negative life event.

The focus of treatment is to provide individuals with the skills they need to:

• improve their capacity to cope with life
• prevent further life trauma
• improve self esteem

The team of professionals includes nurses, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists.

Clients are assessed individually and, when ready, can be treated in a group format.

The Intake and Acute Team work closely with both the Child and Adolescent Team (in family interventions) and with the Long-term Team (in transferring individuals with profound mental illness such as schizophrenia.)

Mobile Mental Health Crisis Service (MMHCS)

MMHCS is based at the Saint John Regional Hospital. This service is provided under the joint auspices of the Mental Health Program of the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation and the Saint John Community Mental Health Services. MMHCS works closely with many community partners like police and social agencies, consumer associations, as well as families and mental health clients. Clear protocols defining the relationship have been developed between MMHCS and each community partner and there is an on-going exchange of critical information and expectations.

Anyone may call the toll free number (1-888-811-3664) that connects the caller directly to the service.

TeleMental Health

TeleMental Health was initiated in August of 2002 at the Community Mental Health Centre - Saint John to enhance Mental Health Services through the use of Interactive Real-time Imaging and Data Solution (IRIS).

Individuals are referred from the rural centres and appointments are arranged for consultation.

Child and Adolescent Team

Vision

The Child and Adolescent Team strives to optimize mental well-being through the prevention, education and promotion of positive approaches to mental health issues with children, adolescents and their families.

Mission

The mission of the Child and Adolescent Services is to improve, maintain and promote the mental health and emotional well-being of children, adolescents, their families and caregivers via co-operation with community resources.

Objectives

• Prevention
• Treatment
• Recovery from mental health problems
• Promotion of healthy approaches to mental health issues.

Services

Services are available to children and adolescents up to and including age 18. Services are provided to children and adolescents with mental health problems serious enough to disturb their biological/psychological/social functioning, their school performance, and/or the functioning of their families, and who do not have available to them sufficient resources to cope with their problems.

Priority will be given to those in most severe need according to accepted diagnostic criteria. Most will be seen for an initial consultation within 3 weeks of the referral. All children and adolescents considered to be at immediate risk of serious harm to themselves or others will be given priority over all other referrals. All the other referrals will be assigned in accordance with their assessed level of priority.

Services provided include:

• Crisis Intervention
• Screening
• Mental Health Assessment
• Individual Therapy
• Family Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Play Therapy
• Consultation with Other Community Agencies - Child and Adolescent Services works in conjunction with Education, Public Health, Family and Community Services, Justice, Ridgewood Addictions Services and the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation.

We are an active member of the Youth Treatment Regional Committee. The Child and Adolescent Service also promotes activities to reduce among children and adolescents at risk, the incidence of behaviors that are injurious to their mental health.