Naaniigaan Abinoojii

This word can take on the character of admonition (teaching).  This assertive policy expresses (among other things) the affirmative need to understand and to protect the emotional, social, cultural, linguistic and spiritual context of an Anishnabe child- all its human relationships, more completely as inode’iziwin.  In this spirit the Children’s Mental Health program offers the following services:

Program / Service Features:

To provide community based early identification, intervention and treatment programs for children up to 6 years of age with mental health problems, and their families.

Specific functions include:

• establishing effective linkages in their communities with, for instance, Ontario Early Years Centres, child care centres, elementary schools, etc,
• undertaking clinical assessments,
• developing integrated treatment plans for children (0-6) and accessing the identified services,
• providing treatment,
• providing counselling to families,
• providing early identification and prevention programs,
• providing crisis intervention,
• providing or linking families to appropriate parenting classes and life skills training,
• providing  training to service providers on parenting and early child development.

Services will have formal protocols with a broad array of service providers e.g. hospitals, schools, children’s aid societies, and use informal community supports (e.g. church, volunteers, scouts/cub/guides, recreation facilities).

Services will take the form of an individual- or a group-based treatment program that will have two major components, provided concurrently: child development and parenting skill development.