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Healthy Minds/Healthy Children offers a variety of resources and services to support and build capacity in primary care in the area of child and adolescent mental health. Our goals are:
Services and resources include:
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| History | |||
Established in 2001, the Southern Alberta Child and Youth Health Network (SACYHN) aims to facilitate professional capacity building and to promote accessible services that are responsive to the unique needs of children and families and are as close to home as possible. In 2003, SACYHN received three years of funding from the federal Primary Health Care Transition Fund via the Alberta Health & Wellness’ Capacity Building Fund for two outreach initiatives: Healthy Infants and Healthy Minds/Healthy Children. In 2004, SACYHN also received a grant from Alberta Health and Wellness’ Clinical Telehealth to augment consultation services using telehealth. In 2006, Healthy Minds/Healthy Children was granted Mental Health Innovation funding that allowed us to continue and expand our services. In April 2009, we received permanent funding from Alberta Health and Wellness through Alberta Health Services which allows us to continue our work. In the Fall of 2009, we received additional funding under the provincial Children’s Mental Health Action Plan to expand our outreach and educational support to rural and remotely located practitioners |
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| Rationale | |||
| Recent research indicates that up to
20-25% of children and youth (about 800,000 in Canada) have a mental
health diagnosis. In fact, mental health is the largest category
of health problems currently facing children in Canada. However,
the vast majority (over 75%) of these children will not receive specialized
treatment. Children are most likely to see a family doctor, while
others may be seen through the school system or at a community mental
health clinic. Many children receive no service at all.
Left untreated, these children and youth are at greater risk for adult mental health problems and other problems such as addictions, criminal behaviour, and poor school performance – with all of the potential life, relationship, and career limitations associated with these circumstances. Many primary care professionals involved in the assessment and treatment of these young people have had little or no training in the area of child and adolescent mental health. They often indicate discomfort in treating this population with their current level of skill and knowledge. Their hectic schedules and the diversity of their practice make it difficult for them to attend educational programs in children’s mental health. In order to address these gaps, Healthy Minds/Healthy Children offers a variety of services to support and build capacity in children’s mental health in primary care. |
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| What We Offer | |||
Announcement for the second edition of the HM/HC Desk Reference |
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| Newsletter | |||
| The Healthy Minds/Healthy Children Newsletter is available below,
in PDF format.
You must have Acrobat Reader to view the document. Click here to download a free version. Spring 2010 |
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Home Updated July 14, 2010
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