Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre: A Beacon of Hope for Youth and Families

Despite having excellent resources in our community, navigating the health system can feel overwhelming, particularly for youth, families and caregivers in crisis.

That’s where Kids Come First (KCF) comes in – uniting over 60 organizations to make it easier for kids and youth to access the care they need across the health and social system.

Meet the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre – a Kids Come First Partner and member of 1Call1Click.ca

1Call1Click.ca is an initiative of Kids Come First, connecting children, youth and families/caregivers with the right mental health, addictions, substance use health and neurodevelopmental health services and care when they need it.

The Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre (DSYTC) offers live-in and after-care treatment for young people ages 13-21 living with substance use and mental health challenges. What’s unique about DSYTC is that it’s a voluntary treatment program with a flexible length of stay, meaning youth may stay for a few weeks or a few months. And no matter how long they stay, DSYTC continues supporting them while they transition back into the community. DSYTC connects each youth and family/caregiver to an after-care counsellor who helps them find ongoing mental health and substance use care in the community, get academic and/or job support, and also gives their family ongoing counselling and guidance.

Strength lies in partnership

But one small but mighty organization can only make so much impact. So, when an opportunity presented itself to join a new child and youth partnership, DSYTC jumped at the chance. “I remember getting an email about a proposal in the works for a new initiative that would improve access to care for kids and youth,” said Mike Beauchesne, DSYTC President and CEO. “This was exciting because it meant a renewed and unique focus on helping children, youth and families in our community.”
And the rest is history. DSYTC has been a KCF partner since day one.
KCF has made it easier for DSYTC and other service providers to work together and understand how to better support youth and families/caregivers.

“KCF brought service providers together to talk about the issues that matter most to our respective clients,” said Beauchesne, who is also the former Co-Chair of the Kids Come First Mental Health, Addictions and Substance Use Health Table. “It’s very easy to get caught up in our own silos and focus internally,” Mike explained. “Kids Come First reminds us to think about how we can work together to support other organizations and the system as a whole.”

The ultimate goal is to improve access to the system. But there is still a lot of work to do. The sector has evolved, but setting priorities can be challenging when there are so many projects the partners want to tackle. “We need to be conscious of our bandwidth while continuing to develop the right care pathways,” Mike said.

When reflecting on the impact KCF has had, Mike remembers the words of a former DSYTC client “You were there for me at the right time and the right place when I needed it.” This is exactly what KCF partners aim to do together. “We all want to provide children, youth and families with the right care, when, where and how they need it