Centre Roberts / Smart Centre

For more than 35 years, the Roberts/Smart Centre has maintained its commitment to serving young people facing the most serious of mental health challenges. We have developed expertise in helping adolescents who have severe behavioural and emotional problems and for whom other interventions have failed.

Those who enter our programs are among the most troubled of our youth. Their depression, anger, aggression and/or addictions make them “high risk” – they have lost their way on the path to becoming a healthy productive adult. The challenges are great but we have been unwavering in our commitment to this group of young people.

Residential Programming

Children’s mental health programming has evolved over the years to include a greater emphasis on out-patient treatment. The value of providing treatment to many troubled young people while they remain with their families and continue to interact with their friends is unquestionable.

However, for some children and youth, treatment can only be delivered effectively in a structured, caring environment that provides support 24 hours a day. For those facing the greatest challenges, the residential environment is integral to their treatment and recovery. Funders of children’s mental health programs in Ontario have recognized that residential treatment is a necessary component of the broader system.

The young people who come to Roberts/Smart for residential treatment are in crisis and in many cases, so are their families or caregivers. For some, the crisis is so deep that they are a danger to themselves or to others and require services in a highly secure facility. For others, their emotional pain translates into serious behavioural problems, such as extreme anger or aggression, even violence. Substance abuse and addiction are common. In some cases, the intense emotional conflicts of our young clients stem from abuse or neglect. Many of our clients have been in foster care for years, moving from one temporary home to another. Others have committed an offence and come to Roberts/Smart as an alternative to incarceration, so that they can receive treatment for their underlying emotional and psychological difficulties.

Treatment at the Roberts/Smart Centre

The Safety Net

The Roberts/Smart Centre's overall approach to intervening therapeutically with its specialized population of adolescents is articulated in the fact sheet "Treatment at the Roberts/Smart Centre". However, a fundamental component is the implementation and maintenance of a safety net. The “safety net” concept is expressed in the following dimensions:

Initial Phase

Restructuring the client's social environment through:

warm and positive environment
firm limits for unacceptable behavior
consistent use of non-hostile and non-punitive sanctions for rule violation
youth counselors act as adult role models and supportive authority figures

Working-Through

Monitoring (Management Strategies): residential rules, structures and practices. Specific management protocols to manage behaviours including:

addictive behaviour
aggression
fire-setting
running
suicidal behaviour
goal oriented recording
therapeutic crisis intervention

Skills Development and Relationship Building

In order to maximize skill development and to establish a climate for relationship building, the Centre focuses on the following areas for residential programming:

social skills training
academic support
anger management
sex education
listening skills
recreational activities

Therapeutic Interventions

Aside from the therapeutic process, broadly defined, the Centre also provides professionally oriented therapeutic interventions, including:

family therapy
individual therapy
specialized interventions
anger management
stress management/relaxation
life skills
healthy sexuality
substance abuse
cognitive-behavioural approaches for perpetrators of sexual assault
social skills groups

Separation

Treatment also involves successful separation from the residential environment and appropriate adjustment upon discharge. This is facilitated through:

relapse prevention is a cognitive behavioural approach to training a client in techniques to avoid returning to previous maladaptive behaviours
self-control training involves preparing the client for independent living by increasingly requiring that he/she makes decisions for him or herself
expectations of staff

all staff members employed by the Centre are expected to demonstrate the ability or aptitude (ability to learn) to:

implement the treatment model in a caring and non-punitive manner;
provide a warm and positive environment through the use of daily routines, firm limits and non-punitive consequences
manage stressful and atypical situations without demonstrating anger, scorn, ridicule, panic or retaliation
perform behavioural interventions, including physical restraints in accordance with the Centre's approved policy and training procedures;
manage adolescents in a group process, and

Behavioural Interventions

The Roberts/Smart Centre utilizes a spectrum of behavioural interventions for dealing with agitated, aggressive, or violent adolescents. Such interventions can vary from:

ignoring the young person's actions
redirecting through verbal cues
setting expectations and providing choices
acknowledging the adolescent's feelings and allowing an opportunity to express them and to vent
using a “time out” - removing the young person from the setting precipitating the agitation.
physical restraint

Physical Restraint

“Physical restraint is the use of staff to hold a child safely and therapeutically in order to contain acute physical behaviour.”

Residential Child Care Project: Therapeutic Crisis Intervention - Cornell University

The goals of physical interventions are to:

maintain a safety net within each of the Centre's programs
assist an adolescent to regain self-control
assist the young person to learn other ways to express anger, as an alternative to aggression and violence
prevent injury to self, others, or serious destruction of property.
demonstrate to the young person that our trained staff can manage dangerous behaviour, without losing control themselves, and without resorting to punishment and retaliation

After a physical intervention has taken place, the staff follow up with the adolescent to develop a strategy for change that will lead to strengthened self-control.

Rights of Clients of the Roberts/Smart Centre

The client’s rights and responsibilities apply to all programs at the Centre and are guaranteed by the Child and Family Services Act. These rights will be reviewed with each young person at each Plan of Care meeting. Every client has a right:

to be informed of responsibilities and the things that will be expected
to be informed of rights that are provided by law
to be informed of the way in which complaints may be heard
not to be punished physically
to be visited and speak in private with one's family unless otherwise ordered by the courts or prohibited by the legal guardian
to receive visits and speak privately with a solicitor (lawyer), the Ombudsman or his staff, a Member of Parliament or of the Provincial Legislature, or somebody the client chooses to represent him/her
to send and receive correspondence that no one else can read
mail may be opened in the client's presence to check for forbidden articles. If there is good reason to believe that correspondence may cause emotional or psychological harm, the staff may read them to the client
to reasonable privacy and to possess personal property
to obtain religious instruction and to choose religious activities
to share in developing the plan of care, which must be ready within 30 days of coming into residence
to well-balanced, good quality meals and to clothing that fits and properly protects
to any medical and dental care needed
to whatever education suits client's needs and to have the opportunity for recreation and athletic activities
to be consulted about all important decisions respecting treatment, medical care, education, religion, transfer to another home or discharge

Clinical Services

The Roberts/Smart Centre offers clinical assessment and therapeutic services, provided by trained social workers and therapists. Clinical therapeutic services are provided to clients from the mental health, youth justice secure treatment residential programs. Clients of the Centre's day treatment programs are provided with clinical therapeutic services but on a more limited basis.