ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

A message from our President: Betty Beer Vanrooy

I have a quote in my office at school, by motivational speaker Jim Rohn that simply says, “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” As an organization working to build capacity and resilience in the families and children we serve, I know that every individual, team and group at Huron Perth Centre is guided in their work by the philosophy behind these words, as we support others to change their lives for the better. We understand that every person, no matter how big or how little, how advantaged or how challenged, is ultimately the designer of his own destiny. Life happens to each of us, and when we are faced with barriers – financial, emotional, physical, or spiritual; accidental or intentional – we can choose to stay stuck in that place and bump up against those roadblocks, or we can choose to change our path and find new roads. HPC is the road construction crew for families, holding the signs, directing the path, filling in the pot holes, and paving the new roads to resilience and children’s mental health. This is the moral imperative and the core work of every one of us at Huron Perth Centre. Our organizational roadmap has been fraught with funding pot holes, accreditation detours, policy and governance lane expansions, and of course the superhighway of system transformation. We have keenly felt the pressures of following the road well-travelled, and have been expected to make significant lane changes while travelling at full speed! And yet, our life at HPC, and more importantly, our work in service of children, does not simply get better by chance. Change happens. Change is inevitable. Growth, however, is optional. If we want to grow and develop as an organization and lead agency, if we are compelled to consistently provide core services to all clients in Huron Perth, and indeed across the province, then we need to embrace change and trust the roadmap we have been given. This roadmap includes familiar places and links and engages community partners to travel newly paved roads with us. It also brings us to new crossroads, and leads us to new places of improved data collection and evidence-based decision making, clearer policies and improved governance at all levels. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I thank each of you for making this journey in service of children’s mental health. It is your integrity, your dedication to your core work, and your belief in the power of change, that sets your personal and professional standard for excellence. I salute each of you who has dedicated your professional life, your caring heart, and your specialized skillset as a member of the “road crew” to help those we serve. You are to be commended, and we thank you sincerely for creating new roadmaps of life for children and families. ~ excerpts from Betty Beer Vanrooy, Board President, Address to Huron Perth Centre Staff and Board of Directors, Annual General Meeting, June 18, 2015.

Children & Youth Mental Health

Services During 2014-2015 our staff provided the following new core services and served many children in

Huron & Perth:

Brief Services (served 252)

Counselling & Therapy (served 415)

Intensive Services (which includes our two Section 23 classrooms) (served 109)

Consultation and Specialized Assessments (served 49)

Work has continued to develop our vision for the core Child & Youth Mental Health services provided by Huron-Perth Centre. We are very excited about two significant changes that we hope will make a huge difference:

Our “Timely Access Team” that aims to make it easier for clients to connect to the Centre and receive some initial clinical assistance at the point of call.

More service time in “Counselling & Therapy”, the dominant service response required by the children and youth who seek our assistance.

We are aiming to launch these changes sometime in 2015 and we will be pleased to share more details as we finalize implementation plans. Externally we worked with our community partners to define our local child and youth mental health system and to identify key priorities for system improvement. Collaborative work is the dominant focus. We also invite you to read more about these provincial changes by visiting www.movingonmentalhealth.ca For the year April 1, 2014- March 31, 2015 the combined revenue from multiple sources totaled $ 3,132,301 We are grateful to our funders who place their trust in us to render high quality services in Huron and Perth. Annual Financial Statements are available upon request.

Three 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 35 children and youth.

“Dedicated to Probation Team” – this service funded by MCYS-YJ provides a Clinician

with access to 1-1 support from a Child &Youth worker to address needs identified by the

Probation Officer(s) and any assessment recommendations. This team works to reduce

risk factors and assist youth to reintegrate with community following any custody

placement and served 70 youth.

School Based Outreach Services – this service provides school-based support services to

youth in Huron secondary schools. This service is made possible through a purchase of

service agreement with the Avon Maitland District School Board and served 171 youth.

Huron-Perth Centre is more than just its children’s mental health services. Our Youth Justice Services

and some special adult services extend our reach and touch the lives of children, youth and their

families in Huron and Perth.

YOUTH JUSTICE SERVICES

Diversion Program (EJM) - Under the YCJA this service offers “extra-judicial measures” in Perth, pre-charge intervention with referrals from police and served 79 youth.

Youth Justice Committee Program –Perth – under the YJCA this service offers intervention post-charge, pre-court through crown referral; can also be referred by Diversion program to access justice circles (conferences) and trained community volunteers helped to serve 24 youth.

Dedicated to Youth on Probation – Mental Health -Counsellors provide assessment and treatment at times augmented by CYWs to youth referred by probation and served 70 youth.

Dedicated to Youth on Probation – Community Support - Child & Youth workers (CYWs) work with Counsellors to address specific goal areas including but not limited to school issues, interpersonal conflicts, employment/need for other supports to reduce risk areas for 24 youth.

OUR ADULT SERVICES

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 88 women; funded by Ministry of Community & Social Services

Delta – group treatment for partner assault in Huron with partner contacts a key aspect to safety of women and children; provided service to 66 clients; funded by Ministry of the Attorney General and client fees

Male Survivors Pilot Project – a new 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 6 clients.

In 2014-2015 we concluded the operation of our Employee Assistance Program.

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Our Quality Assurance Committee, led by Amanda MacDonald, newly appointed QA Manager, provided oversight to a number of quality assurance processes. The committee held 4 committee meetings, reviewed over 200 client satisfaction surveys, provided a community consultation survey to 91 community professionals and received a 33% response rate. Through the consultation the feedback received affirmed that the community experiences HPC staff to be “excellent”, responsive to client needs and providers of quality services. That said, several important themes emerged that identify some areas for improvement: REDUCED WAITING LISTS & WAITING PERIOD - Despite actions to manage the demand for our services, we know that some clients still wait too long for service. Our planned changes to service delivery should really help. Our “Timely Access Team” aims to make it easier for clients to connect to the Centre and receive some initial clinical assistance at the point of call and more service time for “Counselling & Therapy” will increase the number of children we can serve. IMPROVED ACCESSIBILITY - It is important that you know that we provide assistance to help clients access our services. If you know of a client that needs this help, we welcome you to let us know. MORE COMMUNICATION - We value working in collaboration with any and all professionals who are working with the family. We do continue to value self-referral but with consent we welcome you to call us to help develop a plan to respond to the unique needs of each child, youth and family who needs our help. MORE SERVICES - In the absence of additional funding, we work to create partnerships that help us to optimize what resources we have available. A big thank you to our community partners who collaborate to help make a difference in the lives of the children and youth who struggle with mental health issues.

Caitlin Robb, our founding youth advocate facilitated the community planning processes to

develop our two child & youth mental health plans submitted to the Ministry of Children

and Youth Services in March 2015.

The “Newmens”, our local chapter of the provincial New Mentality group, have offered

leadership in their school, have presented on mental health to several elementary schools

and held a very successful scrap metal and e-waste collection in partnership with Suttis

Metals to help raise funds to support their work to reduce stigma. We are grateful for the

co-leadership provided by Zjibien Blanchard and Skyler Holmes.

In 2015-2016 we plan to continue to foster our youth engagement efforts and hope to

develop some form of family engagement to help inform service improvements.

2014-2015 Board of Directors

The 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

Betty Beer-Vanrooy HURON President & Chair of CEO Evaluation Committee

Ron Shaw PERTH & Vice President

Peter Ivatts HURON Secretary until November 2014

Susan Qureshi PERTH Secretary as of January 2015

Sheree Fleischauer PERTH & Chair of Long Range Planning

Alex Vanderkam HURON & Chair of Audit & Risk & Governance

Kathy Douglas HURON

Dr. Ram Gobburo PERTH

Gary O’Donnell HURON

Shelley Blackmore HURON

Allan Watts PERTH

OUR BELIEF – We believe that positive relationships are the foundation for healing and for

realizing the potential in all persons.

Standing Committees of the Board - Highlights

AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE - Alex Vanderkam, Peter Ivatts and Ron Shaw with Terri Sparling and Linda Nicholson The 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 management.

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE - Alex Vanderkam, Peter Ivatts, Ron Shaw and Susan Qureshi with Terri Sparling The Governance Committee celebrated the completion of the “Policy Project,” a significant effort to overhaul our system of policies and procedures and owes special thanks to Peter Ivatts for his guidance. The work helped to ready the Centre for re-accreditation.

LONG RANGE PLANNING - Sheree Fleischauer (Chair), Kathy Douglas, Ram Gobburo, Shelley Blackmore and community member Caitlin Robb with staff Darlene Pullen, Joan Tabbert, Laurie Thomson, Sarah Wigan, Cheryl Priestap, Loretta Turner, Michelle Evans and Terri Sparling

Updated our Strategic Plan 2014-2017, copies available upon request.

Advocacy through Children’s Mental Health Week – new 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)

Supported the efforts of our “NewMens” to promote mental health awareness, reduce stigma, take action for supportive schools and raise funds to attend the Disable the Label conference in July 2015.

SALARY & BENEFITS – Gary O’Donnell (Chair), Betty Beer-Vanrooy with staff: Patty Hills, Brenda Dumond, Jill Carter, Mark Allen, JayJ McKinley and Cheryl Priestap and as resource: Terri Sparling and Linda Nicholson The S & B Committee monitors progress on resolution of issues of concern to staff and oversees compensation decisions. Staff representatives did a fabulous job of collating staff feedback and provided the Board with a clear sense of what is important to staff.

CEO EVALUATION - Betty Beer-Vanrooy (President and Chair), Sheree Fleischauer (Long Range Planning), Alex Vanderkam (Audit & Risk & Governance) and Gary O’Donnell (Salary & Benefits)

The committee continues to utilize a process of evaluation that has been mutually designed between Board and CEO for the purpose of establishing meaningful goals and monitoring progress and guide decisions on the use of new lead agency resources to build agency capacity.

2014-2015 HPC Staff

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:

Mark Allen, Heather Becker, Hayley Black, Shirley Brooker, Stefanie Bultje, Shannon Carroll, Jill Carter, Chris Coombs, Brenda Dumond, Joanne Feltz*, Martha Hazell, Patty Hills, Jenny Kelp, Anne Catherine Jean, Kulpreet Luckhardt, Amanda MacDonald, Cathy Marlowe, Mary McInnes, Anne Orr, Darlene Pullen, Sandy Stuart, Joan Tabbert, Laurie Thomson, Michelle Van Loon Consulting Psychologist: Dr. Milton Blake External Consultations: Dr. Rosaline Salo, Dr. Kristen Blaine 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, Denise Nevin, Sheila O’Donovan, Darlene Pullen School-Based Outreach Services - Diane Maize & Sarah Wigan Youth Justice – Diversion - JayJ McKinley Youth Justice Committee Perth - Scott Fisher & a team of dedicated volunteers Dedicated Services to Probation Team - Jill Carter, Mark Allen, Julie Webster-Waldie Youth Engagement - Sarah Wigan, adult ally with “NewMens” our New Mentality Chapter Our adult services staff: Renascence - Sheri MacLaren & Cathy Marlowe Group Delta – Sheri MacLaren, Darlene Pullen and Scott Fisher and Chad Wise “on loan” from Ministry of Correctional Services Male Survivors – Sheri MacLaren Administrative Support Team: Linda Byles*, Fran McGregor, Cheryl Priestap (IT Admin Support), Lorraine Moffat, Jaclyn Mustard (Business Unit Admin Support), Rosemary Nicholson, Loretta Turner and the following part-time/evening staff: Sarah Anderson, Heidi Jackson-Lantz, Cyndi Stephenson, Olivia Pullen and Meryl Thomas Management Team: Terri Sparling (CEO) with Linda Nicholson (Business Manager), Jennifer Azzano (Perth Clinical Services Manager), Cathy Graham (Huron Clinical Services Manager) and Val Millson (Clinical Services Manager for Partnerships and Protocols) with support from Michelle Evans and the following individuals who augmented the management team: Sandy Stuart, Louise Tamblyn, Jim Boniferro, Anne-Catherine Jean (OH&S Manager) and Amanda MacDonald (Quality Assurance Manager).

*denotes staff who are no longer with the Centre

SPECIAL THANKS TO STAFF WHO OFFER LEADERSHIP TO A NUMBER OF INTERNAL COMMITTEES

Quality Assurance – leadership to a number of continuous improvement processes. The committee is currently redefining how it defines quality and will help guide efforts to use data to inform practice. Amanda MacDonald (QAC Chair) with Jennifer Azzano, Shirley Brooker, Cheryl Priestap, Jill Carter, Mary McInnes, Val Millson and Terri Sparling. A copy of the Quality Assurance Report for 2014 is available upon request. Accreditation – The Accreditation Team provided strong leadership to all levels of the organization in preparation for the self-study and site visit. Thanks to our co-chairs Michelle Van Loon and Mary McInnes and the following staff: Heather Becker, Michelle Evans, AC Jean, Amanda MacDonald, Linda Nicholson, Rosemary Nicholson, Sandy Stuart, Terri Sparling and Julie Webster- Waldie 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 Cathy Graham/Anne-Catherine Jean (OH & S Manager), Linda Byles*, Heather Becker, Loretta Turner, Scott Fisher 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, Shannon Carroll, Shirley Brooker, Darlene Pullen, Sheri MacLaren, Amanda MacDonald, JayJ McKinley, Julie Webster-Waldie and Jaclyn Mustard.

From Terri Sparling, CEO

The ripples of provincial change known as “Moving on Mental Health” have permeated every

discussion and decision at Huron-Perth Centre. Internally the management team has worked to

position its resources (people and funding) to create a stronger service response focuses around 4 of

the defined core services that are to be available in every community. And externally our local

planning efforts that have cultivated strong, lasting partnerships and collaborative responses during

past tough times have become the backbone of our Community Mental Health plan. The process to

inventory what services we have and to identify actions to clarify access, increase communication and

collaboration has helped to celebrate what we have done collectively to respond to the mental health

needs of children and youth. It is also a call to action as we are in the very early days of creating a

comprehensive and sustainable system of care for our children, youth and families, and the need for

service far exceeds our collective resources.

Concurrent to this work of system transformation has been a focus on meeting a range of standards

defined by the Canadian Centre for Accreditation. Our commitment to effective, quality service is

witnessed in the time and energy spent readying for our site visit held in April 2015.

None of this would be possible without our unique, dedicated and gifted Board of Directors, staff and

volunteers. While change is hard, we have a team of people that embrace innovation and excel in

collaborative efforts that value each of the parts that make up the whole. I continue to be humbled

by the great people who are the essence of the Huron-Perth Centre.

~ Terri Sparling, CEO

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015