B.C.’s Ministry of Health is ordering the Island Health Authority to reinstate key staff positions for a youth mental health program.
The directive came after several mid-Vancouver Island school districts expressed concern over staffing cuts, amidst an acute deficit of mental health services for children.
The districts say Island Health had told them over the summer that it had cut lead positions with the Integrated Child and Youth (ICY) program in their regions.
School officials worried about added workload for counsellors and reduced services for youth.
“What was a really quite robust program had to be cut in half,” said Michell Bennett, director of instruction for inclusive education for the Pacific Rim School District, which serves families from Port Alberni to Tofino.
“We couldn’t take on new referrals. Our wait list has grown.”
Several school districts — including the Comox Valley and Pacific Rim districts — said Island Health had not informed them of the cut until after the fact.
The Courtenay-Comox, Qualicum-Parksville, Pacific Rim and Cowichan Valley school districts all confirmed that one or two program lead positions had been cut in each of their regions.
Prior to Island Health being ordered to reinstate the positions, the health authority deferred a request for comment on the cuts to the Ministry of Health.
At first, the ministry told CBC News that supporting youth mental health “is a key priority” and that it would have more to say on the issue soon.
Then, following further requests from CBC to Island Health and the ministry, the ministry said it had asked the health authority to reinstate the positions.
Now, Island Health says it will work to bring back all impacted ICY positions as soon as possible.
Connecting services
The ICY program helps children up to 21 years old access counsellors, substance-use and mental health clinicians and family and peer-support workers.
The ministry says 39 ICY teams are operating or being implemented in 20 school districts across B.C., and that health authorities are given specific funding to provide ICY services to school districts.
WATCH | B.C.’s promotion of its Integrated Child and Youth teams in B.C.:
Bennett says Island Health hired the lead positions. Their job duties included allocating resources across the ministries of health, education and children and family development, receiving referrals, managing wait lists and liaising with community partners, including First Nations.
Not having those staff members throughout the beginning of the school year has been challenging, Bennett says.
“We don’t have positions to take up that work and lots of things have had to go undone,” she said.
To make up for the deficit, Bennett says, the Pacific Rim School District reduced the caseload of one of its clinical counsellors by 50 per cent to take on the program lead’s work.
News that the health authority would be reinstating the position was welcome.
“I’m really pleased to hear that,” Bennett said.
“The other ICY teams … are intact and so making service equitable in our province and teams offering similar services to the communities that they are in, is really important.”
