Tele-Mental Health
The Ministry of Health selected Vanier Children’s Mental Wellness to host Ontario’s Tele-Mental Health Services—Western Hub, which transitioned to Vanier on January 24, 2022. Vanier was selected for this program due to its clinical expertise, planning capacity, and affiliation with the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University and the London Clinical Psychology Consortium.
What are Tele-Mental Health Services?
Tele-Mental Health is a creative solution for increasing access to child psychiatry and reducing wait times for children and youth in rural, remote, and underserved communities.
Tele-Mental Health Service (TMHS) provides children and youth in rural, remote, and underserved communities access specialized mental health consultations through videoconferencing as close to home as possible.
TMHS also strives to provide culturally appropriate services to First Nations, Métis, Inuit, urban Indigenous, and francophone children, youth, and their families.
Tele-Mental Health:
- Uses secure videoconferencing technology,
- Provides consultations with child psychiatrists to children/youth and their families without having to leave their community,
- Provides direct consultation that allows for diagnosis and treatment recommendations, and
- Provides agency staff with vital education and training to build their professional expertise and better serve children and youth in their community.
- It is a consultation model with access to specialized mental health consults provided by three Hubs: The Hospital for Sick Children, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and Vanier Children’s Mental Wellness.
Consultations
Consultations may be in the form of:
Clinical Consultations:
TMH consultant (Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and/or a Licensed Allied Mental Health Professional) will see a child or youth with their family/guardians and Community Case Manager for Mental Health Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment recommendations.
Professional-to-Professional Consultations: TMH consultant (Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and/or a Licensed Allied Mental Health Professional) will meet with the Community Case Manager to provide consultation regarding management and/or treatment for child and youth clients.
Program Consultations:
TMH consultant (Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and/or a Licensed Allied Mental Health Professional) provides team consultation or education to Community Care Providers regarding assessments, management, and treatment.
Who can make a referral?
The Tele-Mental Health Service is available to all publicly funded Child and Youth community service providers working in rural, remote, and underserved areas.
This includes professionals working in:
- Child and youth mental health agencies
- School boards
- Hospital out-patient programs
- Family health teams
- Aboriginal Health Access Centres
- Friendship Centres
- Youth justice settings
- Child welfare agencies
- Other community-based agencies that provide child and youth mental health services
How can you refer?
The TMHS has partnerships with coordinating agencies across Ontario that help youth and their families access resources within their communities. These coordinating agencies also help families connect with specialist services like ours when needed. Referrals should be directed to the coordinating agency dedicated to each service area.
Woodview Mental Health and Autism Services is the Service Coordination Agency for ‘Area 2’, which includes Wellington, Niagara, Haldimand, Norfolk, Brant, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Lambton, Huron, Bruce, and Grey.
Link to Woodview website/contact info
All youth who identify as Indigenous can also access TMHS Services through the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC).
Link to SOAHAC website/contact info
Forms
Link to Consent Disclosure Form
For More Information:
To find out more information on the Tele-Mental Health Services Western Hub
westernhub [at] vanier.com (westernhub[at]vanier[dot]com)
519.433.3101 ext.229