Mental Health & Substance Use Services

These mental health and substance use services are client-centred, goal-oriented, innovative, culturally safe, trauma-informed, involve families, and use psychosocial rehabilitation and harm reduction philosophy and practices.

Clients have a choice of interventions and supports. Approaches to care are adaptable to suit a client’s needs. Care plans, interventions, and supports are regularly reviewed and updated.

Clients and families can expect respectful, compassionate and competent care. Teams collaborate with clients and families to build on strengths, knowledge and interests to foster hope, growth, and empowerment.

Services are timely and flexible to address changing, urgent and unscheduled needs. Services can include individual sessions, group programs, clinic-based appointments, virtual appointments (phone or video), and outreach. Follow-up takes place when clients do not connect with the team as planned and there is an impact to safety or goals. Services may be offered on a short term (i.e., less than six months) or longer-term basis. Services are team-based and a “most responsible clinician” (MRC) is assigned to each client based on their needs. The MRC will be the main point of contact, ensures services are coordinated and supports transitions into/out of team services, hospital services, and community services.

There is always access to the MRC or back-up clinician during business hours. After hours support is provided through the Vancouver Access and Assessment Centre (AAC) from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

Service providers include:

• case manager (registered nurse, registered psychiatric nurse, social worker, clinical counsellor, occupational therapist)
• concurrent disorder clinician (social worker, clinical counsellor)
• employment counsellors,
• family support and involvement coordinator,
• health-care worker,
• nurses who specialize in substance use medicine,
• occupational therapist,
• peer worker,
• physicians who specialize in substance use medicine,
• psychiatrist and
• recreation therapist.

We provide outpatient individual and group counselling for people with mental health and/or addiction problems. This includes:

• assessment and access to services
• crisis stabilization
• psychiatric consultation
• short term individual counselling
• group therapy
• case management
• referral to detoxification and residential treatment programs out of area as needed
• harm reduction and needle exchange services
• school-based substance use counselling services to youth 12 – 14 years of age