The Centre is committed to a treatment process whereby the staff of the Centre assist an individual adolescent to acquire and maintain those skills and competencies necessary to help the adolescent to cope more effectively with personal and social issues. This commitment is further extended by efforts to reduce incidents of behaviours resulting from mental health challenges, through advocacy, prevention programming and public education.
This overall philosophy is based on the view that we change behaviour by teaching, coaching, and counselling in a supportive and caring milieu, thereby encouraging and supporting our clients in learning effective, constructive and pro-social ways of behaving.
In keeping with this philosophy, the Centre believes that:
- Each adolescent is a unique individual. Thus, in bringing about change, the intervention strategies that make a difference are contained within specific programs that focus on individualized needs
- Individualized response to client need involves treating the adolescent as a total person, and facilitating adaptive functioning in the areas of emotional well-being, lifestyle (including nutrition, physical activity, sexuality, relaxation, and values), family relationships, and pro-social behaviour
- Therapeutic relationships between staff and clients are established to demonstrate pro-social behaviour to be modeled, or as sources of reinforcement, either positive or negative, in teaching adolescents to acquire competencies and demonstrate alternative responsible behavioural skills
- The Centre maintains a balance between the rights of the adolescent and each youth's individual needs and capabilities. The rights of the adolescent include the right to participate in intervention decisions and the right to the least interference in their lives, without compromising the protection of society, and the needs and best interests of the client and his/her family. It is the Centre's role to provide each adolescent with the opportunity for change, learning and growth, and to provide structure, direction and assistance through which such growth can take place
- A successful transition into a residential treatment program provides the young person with the experience to draw upon for a successful transition back into the community upon leaving the Centre
- The role and involvement of the parents in the Centre intervention programs are encouraged and fostered, such that their role in caring for their child is continued with the support of the Centre
- The Centre is Focused on the Highest Quality Treatment and Care
- We ensure this high quality in several ways:
- We continually improve our treatment by incorporating the latest knowledge, best practices and standards of excellence in children’s mental health into our training and treatment models
- We communicate and collaborate with our community partners to acquire their feedback on our services and to make improvements in response to community requirements
- We have a Program Committee with a mandate to ensure services are of the highest calibre
Continuous Improvement
The Roberts/Smart Centre is dedicated to ensuring its approaches reflect the latest knowledge about effective treatment of high-needs youth. Knowledge is sought out from research bodies and other children’s mental health centres which are demonstrating excellence. The Centre collaborates with organizations that have developed innovative treatment models and provides continuous training to staff, both in-house and through other organizations with specific expertise. The Centre is committed to adapting to new information and to incorporate new and promising treatment approaches into programming, to achieve maximum benefit for clients.
Community Collaboration
The Centre is dedicated to cooperative planning and collaborative service relationships with community partners. This close partnership helps to achieve the highest quality standards, providing valuable feedback on ways in which services can be improved to meet community needs. Working with its partners, the Centre can also ensure that quality support continues for clients when they leave the Centre and return to the community.
Goals
The principal goals of the Roberts/Smart Centre are:
- To advocate for the needs of troubled adolescents
- To participate in efforts to prevent or reduce the incidence of children’s mental health challenges in the general population
- To provide a spectrum of residential services for adolescents including:
- Enabling of psychosocial adjustment for youth and families referred for the residential programs
- Enabling stronger pro-social identification, outlook and competencies for youth referred to the Centre
- Stabilizing personal and social functioning sufficient to undertake treatment in a less restrictive environment, especially those in the secure treatment program
- To formulate a plan of care/treatment for each adolescent admitted to the Centre taking into consideration the youth's psychological, educational, social and physical needs
- To provide individual, family, and group counselling or therapy
- To provide a referral to a professional or agency when a client's needs dictate
- To foster maintenance and generalization of acquired mental and emotional competence upon discharge from the residential programs
- To foster continuity of care through linking youths and families to community mental health services
- To engage with community partners to identify and respond to the existing and emerging issues with respect to youth's mental health.
- To make program evaluation an integral part of the operation of the Centre
