On behalf of the Board, thank you to Terri for her extraordinary leadership and vision. We wish to extend a huge thank you to all the staff that are the face of Huron Perth Centre, all of you being very important people in someone’s life, making a difference.

Sue Qureshi

A message from our President Susan Qureshi:

My first two years with the Huron-Perth Centre felt like we were navigating through uncharted waters. The system transformation was happening; programs were being re-designed, re-named and provincial core services were being integrated into our planning. Priorities were being identified and there were a LOT of changes. However it has been exciting to be a part of the changes at the local and provincial levels.

Locally the changes have been supported through our talented Board of Directors who bring a diverse set of skills, experiences and perspectives to the Huron-Perth Centre. There is a strong sense of collaboration and mutual appreciation with a shared vision to our role serving the children and families in our communities. All committees of the Board help to support the Centre to achieve its mission and be successful in the role of Lead Agency for Child & Youth Mental Health. Their time and skills have yielded a number of important improvements to policies, processes and decisions that will positively impact both staff and the services they provide to our children, youth and families. The Board is cultivating HPC’s evolving role as a Children’s Mental Health Centre and Lead Agency within the context of the provincial transformation of Child and Youth Mental Health Services. And, locally, the Board oversees HPC’s role in providing all services including core CYMH services within our community.We are particularly proud of the Board & Staff shared work to develop our new Strategic Plan. The Board enlisted the skills of a consultant Jim Boniferro who has led a thorough process of engagement with board, staff, families and community partners. From many discussions we distilled out three key areas: Youth and Family Engagement; Quality and Collaboration. The Strategic Plan for 2018-2021 will be an invaluable document for the Board as the Huron-Perth Centre continuously strives for quality and collaboration through systemic feedback from our community.

Huron-Perth Centre for Children & Youth

Annual Report for the year

April 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018

Children & Youth Mental Health ServicesOUR MISSION ~ to provide timely access to a range of assessment and treatment services offered by skilled professional staff in collaboration with children, youth, families and their community. During 2017-2018 our staff provided service to children and youth up to 18 in Huron and Perth through a range of core Child & Youth services:

1. Timely Access (701 served); the funding for Access Intake, Brief Services, Crisis and Service Coordination are combined to enable us to provide a seamless service from the first point of contact. This includes our collaboration with our partner Huron Perth Helpline and Crisis Intervention Team that provides the first response to children and youth in serious mental health crisis.

Counselling & Therapy (served 410) Intensive Services; this includes our two Care & Treatment Classrooms and 1-1 support (101 served) Consultation and Specialized Assessments (61 served)

Two services funded through other sources offer additional services to respond to the needs of children and youth:

“Coordinated Clinical Services for Children/Youth in Care” – this collaborative service with Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society provides shared intake for children/youth in care and clinical services support child/foster-family/other family caregivers in collaboration with CAS workers and other community partners (education, doctors, probation) and served 21 children and youth.

School Based Outreach Services – this service provides school-based support services to youth in schools. This

The Huron-Perth Centre is the lead agency for Child and Youth Mental Health in our service area and has the responsibility to develop two plans in collaboration with the community. The Core Services Delivery Plan relates to all CYMH services funded by MCYS; The Community Mental Health Plan relates to all other CYMH services funded by other ministries and operated by other organizations/professionals. Both plans work to maximize limited resources, identify priorities to improve services and identify gaps in service in the event that there are new funding opportunities and/or opportunities for collaboration. For more Information about the provincial policy framework and the role of Lead Agencies visit www.movingonmentalhealth.ca. For more Information about how to access services, services provided by Huron-Perth Centre or to read the Combined Plan “Appendix A: Progress Report” visit: www.hpcentre.on.ca

Our community planning mechanism for Child & Youth Mental Health is through the Huron Perth Children’s Mental Health Network. Membership is open to individuals and organizations that provide mental health services or have an interest in service system planning. For more information email terris@hpcentre.on.ca.

Some highlights from the Core Service Delivery Plan for 2017-2018:

To continue to strengthen access paths into core services - Timely Access is showing promising results!; Education of key referral sources continues; Parent/Caregiver Survey yielded 250 responses and a report will be posted by summer 2018

To continue to develop capacity to identify youth at risk for suicide

To increase collaboration skills and tools as a means to improve service delivery to complex need clients

Several sub-committees provide critical leadership to achieve system improvements including:

School-Based Services Advisory Committee – a sub-committee of the Network, this group provides leadership, planning and coordination of services that are based in schools and provided by a number of partners.

Huron Perth Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Committee – a sub-committee of the

Network, this group provides leadership and support to ensure a community-based

collaborative approach to children and youth at risk for suicide. Projects include:

Stress Lessons for all youth in grade 9, community plan, ongoing training and

participation in community awareness to support mental wellness and knowledge of

services.

Transitional Youth Subcommittee – this sub-committee of the Network has brought together various

Huron-Perth Centre is more than its Child & Youth Mental Health services. Our Youth Justice Services and some specific adult services extend our reach, and touch the lives of children, youth and their families in Huron and Perth.

YOUTH JUSTICE SERVICESDiversion Program (EJM) - Under the YCJA, funded by MCYS-YJ, this service offers extra-judicial measures in Perth, pre-charge intervention with referrals from police. Focus is to reduce risk factors and make amends, while providing a strength-based, solution-focused intervention plan. (51 youth served)A Restorative Justice Pilot served an additional 18 youth.

Dedicated to Youth on Probation – Mental Health - This service, funded by MCYS-YJ, provides both Clinician and 1-1 support from a Child & Youth worker to address needs identified by the Probation Officer(s). Comprehensive assessment and treatment aims to address reducing risk factors, mental health needs and assist youth to reintegrate into their community. This service is offered in Huron and Perth. (36 youth served)

Dedicated to Youth on Probation – Community Support - Child & Youth workers, funded by MCYS – YJ, work with Counsellors to address specific goal areas including but not limited to school issues, interpersonal conflicts, and employment/need for other supports to reduce risk areas. (10 youth served)

Youth Justice Committee Program – Perth – Funded by MAG under the YCJA, this service offers a post-charge, pre-sentence intervention through crown referral. Referral can also be received from the Diversion program. Youth Justice Conferences are held with trained community volunteers to assist a youth in making amends. (12 youth served)

OUR ADULT SERVICES

Delta – group treatment for partner assault in Huron with partner contacts being a key aspect to safety of women and children. This program provided service to 53 court mandated clients and is funded by the Ministry of Attorney General and client fees.

Male Survivors Pilot Project – an initiative launched in 2012 this project offering counseling to male survivors of child sexual abuse in Huron; funded by the Ministry of Attorney General and served 2 clients.

Renascence – supportive counselling services for women who have been victims of abuse; individual and group services, sexual abuse survivors group twice per year in partnership with Women’s Shelter of Huron; provided service to 44 women; funded by Ministry of Community & Social Services.

We are grateful to the women of the Renascence Program for their valuable input into the new poster for the Huron Domestic Assault Review Team (DART).

Our Child & Youth Mental Health Team:A number of Counsellors and Child & Youth Workers work together to provide our child and youth mental health core-services as defined by the provincial service framework:

Amanda MacDonald, Ashlyn Jaques, Brenda Dumond, Cathy Marlowe, Chris Coombs, Darlene Pullen, Denise Nevin, Heather Becker, Jennifer Burns, Jenny Kelp, Jill Carter, Joan Tabbert, Josee McMahon, Kalen Orme, Kate Terpstra, Kulpreet Luckhardt, Mark Allen, Mary McInnes, Michelle Van Loon, Patty Hills, Rebecca Mohr, Rosemary Nicholson, Sandy Stuart, Sarah Anderson (student), Shannon Carroll, Shelby Lee (student), Sheri MacLaren, Shirley Brooker, Stefanie Bultje, Matt Adams*, Roxanne Lebrun*, Sarah Pyne*, Shyanne Buick (student)

Consulting Psychologist: Dr. Milton BlakeExternal Consultations: Dr. Rosaline Salo (retired), Pediatricians at Consult Kids and Tele-Mental Health (formerly Tele-psychiatry)

Other service staff increase our capacity to serve vulnerable children and youth:Coordinated Clinical Services for Children in Care - Stefanie Bultje, Sheila O’Donovan, Denise NevinSchool-Based Outreach Services – Scott Fisher, Sarah Wigan, Chris Coombs, Erin Dietrich and Julie Webster-WaldieYouth Justice – Diversion - JayJ McKinley Youth Justice Committee Perth – Erin Dietrich & a team of dedicated volunteers Dedicated Services to Probation Team - Jill Carter, Mark Allen, Kulpreet Luckhardt, Julie Webster-Waldie, Megan O’Brien, Scott Fisher Youth Engagement - Sarah Wigan, adult ally with New Horizons

Our adult services staff: Renascence - Sheri MacLaren, Kate Terpstra & Cathy Marlowe Group Delta – Sheri MacLaren, Mary Gregg and Scott Fisher and Alecia McCabe “on loan” from Ministry of Correctional ServicesMale Survivors – Sheri MacLaren

Administrative Support Team: Lorraine Moffat*, Alysha McDougall*, Heidi Jackson-Lantz, Leanne Cullen, Cheryl Priestap (IT Admin Support), Jaclyn Mustard & Marsha Kritzer (Business Unit Admin Support), Daniel Chirilenco, Loretta Turner and the following part-time/evening staff: Cyndi Stephenson, Becky Sebben and Meryl Thomas

Management Team: Terri Sparling (CEO) with Linda Nicholson (Business Manager), Jennifer Azzano (Clinical Services Manager - Perth), Cathy Graham (Clinical Services Manager - Huron) and Val Millson (Clinical Services Manager for Partnerships and Protocols) with support from Michelle Evans (Executive Assistant) and the following individuals who augment the Management Team: Jim Boniferro, Heather

2017-2018 HPC StaffStanding Committees of the Board – Highlights

AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE - Susan Qureshi, John Herbert with Terri Sparling, Linda Nicholson & Michelle EvansThe Audit Committee oversees all aspects of the Centre’s risk management practices and has provided oversight to several areas of potential risk. The committee reviews financial reports in advance of board meetings and offers advice to Board and Management regarding financial matters.

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE –Elizabeth Wilson, Larry Schoch with Terri Sparling & Michelle EvansOur Governance Committee provides leadership to the Board regarding all governance documents including By-Laws, policies and procedures with a focus on excellence in governance practices.

LONG RANGE PLANNING – Shelley Blackmore, Allan Watts, Devon Peters, Diane Millian, Steve Miners and community member Caitlin Robb with staff Sarah Wigan, Chris Coombs, Michelle Evans and Terri Sparling. New Horizons – Sarah Menary, Taylor Jones, Jessica Dik & Sydney Hunking

Updated our Strategic Plan 2018-2021, copies available upon request. Advocacy through Children’s Mental Health Week – in partnership with our Mental Health

Leads from both school boards to promote CMH Week throughout all schools; sponsored by the ETFO - Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (AMDSB)

Continued support to develop both youth and family engagement This committee has been very active providing leadership to the development of the new

Strategic Plan as well as supporting children’s mental health week activities. The committee continues to focus effort on growth in youth engagement and commencing a family engagement strategy in collaboration with interested family members

SALARY & BENEFITS – Gary O’Donnell and Dave Higgins with staff: Patty Hills, Brenda Dumond, Jill Carter, Mark Allen, JayJ McKinley, Cheryl Priestap and Leanne Cullen and as resource: Terri Sparling and Linda Nicholson, Michelle EvansThe annual staff survey helps to shape areas for improvement in the compensation package. The Board is pleased to be able to make some improvements guided by the Recommendations from the Ward & Uptigrove Compensation Review Report.

CEO EVALUATION – Susan Qureshi (President), John Herbert (Audit & Risk Chair), Shelley Blackmore and Allan Watts (Long Range Planning Chairs) and Gary O’Donnell (Salary & Benefits Chair)The committee continues to utilize a process of evaluation that has been mutually designed between Board and CEO for the purpose of goal setting and performance evaluation.

2017-2018 Board of DirectorsThe Huron-Perth Centre is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of up to 12 individuals who bring diverse perspectives, with equal representation from both Huron and Perth counties. The term of office is 3 years and includes involvement on one committee in addition to the 10 regular meetings held in various locations including Clinton, Dublin and Stratford. Interested individuals can request more information by contacting Terri Sparling, CEO at 519-273-3373 X 2230

Susan Qureshi PERTH President

Allan Watts PERTH & Vice President

Devon Peters PERTH Secretary

Gary O’Donnell HURON

Shelley Blackmore HURON

Dave Higgins HURON

Diane Millian HURON

Elizabeth Wilson PERTH

John Herbert PERTH

Steve Miners HURON

Larry Schoch PERTH

Linda Kelly PERTH

NEW! HPC Strategic Plan 2018-2021

The New Horizons were successful in securing a grant from United Way Perth-Huron to hold a local forum modelled after the provincial event. To their credit they engaged with a group of area youth and have developed a presentation to convey their learning and their advice. What an amazing group of young people! Plans are underway for these leaders to attend the provincial conference again this July.

Huron-Perth New Horizons – This small but dynamic group of young leaders has been actively working to grow the base of youth membership. These youth provide advice and lead advocacy efforts in Huron and Perth to system changes. The New Horizons of HPC have attended the provincial New Mentality Conference called “Disable the Label” and learned a number of new skills to help them in their ventures.

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

The work to build family engagement into service planning is in its infancy stage. As a service area, the Huron-Perth Child & Youth Mental Health Network invited parents and caregivers to offer comments on their experiences with area services regarding child and youth mental health. The results are being collated and will be available in summer 2018. As an agency we held a family focus session in May 2018 regarding our new Strategic Plan. We are indebted to the parents who attended this session as they shared their wisdom with passion. This session offered a safe space for parents to share their frustrations working with services throughout our system. Their detailed comments will serve as a blueprint for the development of a Family Engagement Strategy for the Centre. In the words of Board Member/Parent Devon Peters, “Every bit of this information we have gathered will not fall on deaf ears. This is a work in progress and we are heading in a positive direction to listen and support the voice of parents/those in parenting roles. We recognize that many parents do not have time on their side right now as they have been challenged to support children who have been struggling in a less than perfect system”. It is our hope that some of these parents may then lead the development of this strategy with the support of the Centre, the Parent Engagement Specialist with Parents for Children’s Mental Health and in collaboration with our Long Range Planning Committee.

New parents/caregivers are welcome to join in this work! Contact Michelle at michellee@hpcentre.on.ca for more information.

FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

SPECIAL THANKS TO STAFF WHO OFFER LEADERSHIP TO OUR INTERNAL COMMITTEESA number of staff contribute to the health and wellbeing of the organization and we are indebted to their commitment to this work as it has a corresponding positive impact on staff and their work with children, youth and families.

Accreditation – Working hard to prepare for the 2019 Accreditation is: Mary McInnes (chair) and the following staff: Heather Becker, Heidi Jackson, Amanda MacDonald, Joan Tabbert, Josee McMahon, Michelle Evans, Michelle Van Loon Kate Terpstra, Terri Sparling, Val Millson and Jennifer Azzano.

SEA Team - this team, supported by Amanda MacDonald, works to cultivate the use of the Social Ecological Approach (SEA) within HPC teams. SEA “Champions” have been mentored by Dr. Ungar and work to bring the lens of SEA into clinical consultations

Occupational Health & Safety – this team transcends the usual activities of attending to a safe workplace; in addition to annual training on various aspects of safety this group is influencing agency decisions that acknowledge the impact of vicarious trauma and support wellness and well-being for staff. Thanks to Heather Becker (OH & S Manager), Daniel Chirilenco, Scott Fisher, Darlene Pullen and Jenny Kelp for their insight and leadership.

Professional Development Task Force – this staff initiated group seeks ways to optimize professional learning and growth. Members are keen to identify creative ways to share expertise and integrate learning into practice. Thanks to Val Millson, Sandy Stuart, Amanda MacDonald, Darlene Pullen, Cathy Marlowe, Kulpreet Luckhardt, Joan Tabbert, Jayj McKinley and Michelle Evans.

Quality Improvement – The committee provides leadership to all quality improvement processes and has worked to operationalize the new definition of quality into the annual plan. Amanda MacDonald (QIC Chair) with Mary McInnes, Cheryl Priestap, Terri Sparling, Jill Carter, Shirley Brooker, Cathy Graham, Val Millson, Michelle Evans and Sarah Anderson. A copy of the Quality Improvement Report for 2017 is available on the website or by request.

Technology - provides guidance around the growing and evolving needs for technology in the agency. Membership includes staff from all perspectives – technical, clinical, administrative, and management. The current team includes Cheryl Priestap (Chair), Linda Nicholson, Kate Terpstra, Leanne Cullen, Heather Becker, Mark Allen and Michelle Evans.

1. Revise procedures to align with the new definition of Quality.

Define a new definition of Quality

In 2017, a significant amount of training and consultation with the Centre for Excellence was invested in developing a Quality Plan for 2018-2019. The revision of the procedures will take place throughout 2018 to align with the new QI plan.

2. Continue to develop capacity to use data to inform decision-making.

It has been recognized that additional work has to occur to clearly define elements of how staff understand and report activities in EHMware to ensure consistency and accuracy in reporting. The management team has begun using data to inform decision making.

3. Strengthen use of evidence-informed practice through tracking training events and documentation on how clinical decisions reflect EIP.

Training provided by the Centre of Excellence has occurred to support staff in the use of evidence-informed practice. Further opportunities for additional training will occur in 2018-2019. A screening form was also developed to track use of EIP.

4. Implement changes to the clinical record system including increased monitoring of compliance to standards for intake, assessments and time frames.

In July 2017, the agency “went live” with the new electronic file format. This process has streamlined compliance to recording standards.File audits have been completed for 2017 in all programs to monitor compliance to standards.

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The Quality Improvement Committee (QIC) led by Amanda MacDonald, Quality Improvement Manager, met 6 times and worked closely with the Centre of Excellence. One of the most significant consultations with the Centre for Excellence led the Quality Improvement Committee in the development of a Quality Plan for 2018-2019, including a plan for measurement of the selected indicators. Next steps will include the development of revised procedures to align with the new definition and a communication plan to support to implementation of the Quality Plan. Progress on the recommendations are highlighted below:

From Terri Sparling, CEO

We are now in our 41st year of service to families! Since 2014, with the implementation of the provincial policy framework “Moving on Mental Health”, we are beginning to see the kind of change that is needed to effectively respond to the mental health needs of children, youth and families. In four short years we have created a system of timely access into services. A simple call or text will initiate help directly for children, youth and families and/or through other professionals who may be calling on behalf of a family. This change has resulted in significant reductions in waiting for ongoing Counselling & Therapy and easy access into our many other services funded outside of child and youth mental health. These are changes worthy of celebration!

As we work for change locally, regionally and provincially it is with the knowledge that the “system” is not one single system but a collection of services and supports that knit together - services that help to make a difference in the lives of our children, youth and families. This is no easy feat when there are real resource capacity issues. However, the Centre has survived and thrived because of our commitment to partner and collaborate in order to make the best of limited resources. It is no wonder that collaboration is the third pillar in our new strategic plan! We have plans to cultivate Dr. Ungar’s “Social Ecological Approach” as a key means to respond to the complex mental health needs of our children and youth. It is through collaboration that we work with our youth and families, with board and staff and with the community to move the yardstick in continuous quality improvement.

None of this is possible without collective will; to that I am indebted to the talents and dedication of a caring Board of Directors, skilled and compassionate staff, passionate youth and parents, and generous community partners. Each one of you brings a unique element to our shared vision. Together we can take Voice, Quality and Collaboration to lead change that will benefit the children, youth and families in Huron and Perth.

Terri