Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit

The unit has 6 bedrooms. Each bedroom has its own bed. There is a kitchen with a dining area where children and adolescents can eat and prepare food.  There is a lounge with a TV room, and a place to play video games and do arts and crafts.  There is a classroom, a gym, and a place to do some gardening (when the weather allows). The unit offers both unplanned crisis and planned services to children and adolescents under the age of 18 with serious mental health problems living in Nipissing, Parry Sound, South Cochrane, and Muskoka Districts.

Inpatient Services

Crisis Services

Most people come to the unit through hospital emergency services.  They come because of worries about their safety. Problems that lead to admission include worries about possible suicide, losing touch with what’s real, or being aggressive to the point that someone could get seriously hurt.

After coming to the unit staff work with you to understand if you are at risk.  If you are, the staff will work with you to try to reduce the risk and its causes, until you are ready to go back home. Crisis services are usually very brief, usually 72 hours.

Planned Services

Referrals for planned non-crisis assessment and treatment originate with community providers and require scheduling a preadmission session which engages the child/adolescent and family as well as referral sources in informed discussion. A typical length of stay for planned services is 2 to 6 weeks.

Community Partners

Community Partners are partners in assessment and intervention strategies such as engaging in family work during the admission and provide services following discharge from hospital.

Family Services

Community Counselling Centre Nipissing

Care at School

North East Community Care Access Centre – Mental Health and Addictions Nurses

Children’s Mental Health

Simcoe Muskoka Family Connexions

Hands – The Family Health Network

North Eastern Ontario Family and Children’s Services (NEOFACS)

Children’s Aid Society

The Children’s Aid Society of the District of Nipissing and Parry Sound

Nipissing District Child & Youth Advocacy Centre (CYAC)