Front Door; Access to Child and Youth Mental Health Services

TODAY TODAY TODAY TODAY TODAY TODAY TODAY TODAY

I'm having to serve court documents to Staff from Carizon. Abbey and Corrina I will serve you subpoena on Friday.

I met with Karen today and what a great experience. Before my visit I was feeling overwhelmed and I left with a multitude of practical suggestions, resources, referrals... My visit was so informative and I'm feeling positive about moving forward. A great resource! Highly recommended!

Took child here for counselling session after some concerns. Counselor wanted to start therapy with just the child and asked us the parents to leave - which was fine. But then after 5 minutes brought in mom and carried on with therapy for over 40 minutes until completion. I mentioned to the front staff that I felt I was being excluded from the counselling process but I had to wait until the process was over. It was a very bad experience. There were even major decision made in there with mom for next steps that I was not apart in at all. I was just vaguely told what they were when I was allowed back in after it had finished and I had complained. This was even more troubling because I am also a custodial parent and must be involved in any type of family counselling and the decision making process. What made matters even worst the therapist, aside from excluding me from the decision making process, was refusing to tell me what was discussed but felt it was completely okay for mom to be in there once I was back in - but not the other way around. It was overall a very bad experience and have never felt this awful and disrespected leaving therapy before. What was supposed to be a good experience and possibly a good bonding opportunity with the child turned out to be a negative one that excluded me from the process. It is a good thing recommendation was to move forward at some specialization at KW counselling - though the therapist refused to provide particulars and contact information - it is good however KW counselling doesn't do counselling with just child and one parent when the parents are separated. It is a great thing to include both parents. I didn't even know what the issue was or how I could help the child. The child should have at the very least been encouraged to be transparent with both parents and the importance of it and I am sure the child would have been if encouraged. The way it happened it teaches and encourages children to feel it is okay to hide things from parents which is a very bad thing as children get older. As a parent, I would want my child to be open and comfortable to come to me with concerns. I would also want to be an informed parent and be able to provide parental support.