The Province has provided $60,000 to train a group of clinicians working with high-risk children on northern Vancouver Island.

These are children who have experienced a lifetime of challenges, including severe emotional and behaviour concerns, neglect and trauma.

“With early intervention, children who have faced a life of difficulty will be able to grow up healthier, with much improved futures,” said Health Minister Terry Lake. “By providing funding to the Comox Valley Child Development Association, we are providing these children with the help they need to grow and heal.”

The three-year pilot training program, “Pathways to Healing Partnership” launched in April 2016, under the direction of Jan Ference, who works with the Comox Valley Child Development Association. This unique project is supported by the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, Child Development Association, Island Health and the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

“Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow and reach their full potential,” said Minister of Children and Family Development Stephanie Cadieux. “That’s why it’s so important that children who experience trauma or neglect at an early age get the best possible supports so they can move beyond their past and step towards a better, brighter and healthier future.”

The training is designed to primarily help individual families with children under six years of age, and support practitioners and school counsellors, as well as clinicians and trauma specialists seeking to provide improved trauma care to their clients. The training is based on creating positive interactions with caregivers and educators, combined with activities that are patterned and repetitive — such as dance, music and massage — that help create a sense of safety for children and allows the reactive parts of their brain to regulate. This model is different because it looks at how children can heal with a neurologically and developmentally sensitive approach.

Another important aspect of the program is that caregivers themselves will receive support in the form of education, mentorship, and trauma-informed intervention plans for home, as well as assistance to address complex needs that sometimes contribute to family stress; such as housing, employment, or substance use issues. 

“We now know that in order for kids to heal, we must go deeper than the surface level, deeper than what many would describe as the child’s behaviour,” said Jan Ference, director, Pathways to Healing Partnership with the Comox Valley Child Development Association. “We need to look at how a person’s history and experiences has impacted their brain, which drives their day-to-day functioning. This model gives us hope that we can make lasting changes for children and their families.”

“Caregivers are a crucial part of the early care children receive, and by providing support and attention to caregivers and parents, the program is ensuring that in times of stress, there are way to cope, heal and manage situations,” said Don McRae, MLA for Comox Valley. “By emphasizing the individualized care and the right supports for parents, families are better able to understand and meet a child’s needs.”

The association anticipates training and certifying up to 15 professionals, represented by multiple community partners, to use the Pathways to Healing Partnership program to identify early intervention opportunities for high-risk children.

To ensure the Province’s range of mental-health and substance-use programs work effectively together, the Province is developing an integrated, cross-government mental-health and substance-use strategy for British Columbia. This work includes a review of current child and youth mental-health and substance-use programs and services. The goal is to address key gaps in the current system and ensure individuals and families can access support services early, before they find themselves in a crisis.

Learn more:

For more information on the Comox Valley Child Development Association, please visit: https://cvcda.ca/

To learn more about the model of care, click on: https://childtrauma.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/NMT_Description_Overview_6_22_12x.pdf

To learn about supports available for youth with mental health concerns, please visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/factsheets/factsheet-child-and-youth-mental-health-services-in-british-columbia