Montreal Children’s Hospital | Teens in crisis will have their SPOT

Faced with a wave of teenagers in distress consulting for mental health problems, the Montreal Children’s Hospital mobilized its troops in record time and will open SPOT, an outpatient center for young people aged 12 to 18 next Monday. suicidal crisis.

Ariane Lacoursiere
The Press

“For 10 years, we have seen a constant increase in the number of young people consulting in a state of suicidal crisis. And the pandemic has added a layer to this increase that we have been seeing for years, ”explains the D^r Martin Gignac, head of psychiatry at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. If there were 200 consultations a year at the turn of the 2000s, there are now 800 young people in crisis going through the emergency doors of the Montreal Children’s Hospital. “And it was 1,200 during the height of the pandemic,” notes the D^r Gignac.

The Montreal Children’s Hospital has eight psychiatric beds to hospitalize these young people. When they overflow, beds from other departments should be used. Hence the idea of ​​thinking about a new way of doing things. “We cannot increase the number of psychiatric beds indefinitely”, comments the D^r Gignac by showing the premises of the SPOT in The Press.

The latter explains that patients in acute crisis who represent too great a risk for themselves will continue to be hospitalized.

A personalized follow-up

In this outpatient center, designed entirely to satisfy the tastes of adolescents, a whole team of professionals will take care of these young people for a period of 12 weeks of intensive therapy. Crisis resolution workshops will be given. Individual, group and family consultations. “Each young person will have a case manager to adjust the follow-up”, says the D^r Gignac.

The goal: to alleviate the suicidal crisis and provide techniques to facilitate the management of long-term psychological distress. Because the services are offered externally, the teenagers will be able to continue to attend school.

The SPOT does not want to replace the community offer in mental health, explains the D^r Gignac. But in the network, particularly in CLSCs, the average waiting time to obtain services is six months. “The services are set up more or less quickly, depending on your geography,” says the D^r Gignac. So much so that approximately “20% of adolescents in crisis treated in the emergency room of the Montreal Children’s Hospital return within 30 days in a new state of crisis, including those who were able to access follow-up services in the community. “, indicates the establishment in a press release.

The SPOT project will cost $12 million and will span 10 years. President of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, Renée Vézina points out that the project was made possible after several donors quickly agreed to support it, including RBC and the Amiel Family Foundation, which will each provide 2 million dollars. “It took six months, raising the funds, and six months, doing the construction,” she rejoices.

“I learned to deal with it all”

Simone Aslan, 20, was hospitalized at the Montreal Children’s Hospital at the age of 15 for suicidal thoughts. “I still have tough days, but I’ve learned to deal with it all,” she says. Involved with the hospital ever since, she believes that SPOT will certainly help young people in distress.

The young woman, who points out that “everyone knows someone who has mental health difficulties”, also believes that the fact that young people will only have to go to one place to receive immediate and complete is a considerable advantage. “Because knowing where to go to access mental services can sometimes seem overwhelming,” she says.

Over the next 10 years, the SPOT project will be closely monitored by the D^r Gignac and other researchers. “We have 10 years to show that it works,” he says.