Compass, the lead agency for child and youth mental health services in Sudbury and Manitoulin, now offers a new online self-referral system. Compass CEO Mark Fraser said the online service allows them to reach more people. “If COVID taught us anything, it taught us to leverage technology in order to increase our reach to families who need us the most,” Fraser said. “The Compass team has worked very diligently … to increase their reach virtually, which is the result of our central access and intake child and youth mental health web portal in which families can access our mental health services.” Additionally, Compass has simplified the referral process for third-party professionals. “In our rural sites, we’ve always been able to access and receive third-party referrals from our community partners,” said Alana Jackson, Compass manager of system performance. “We had never had the capacity to do so in our urban centres. So now we’ve opened that up that we can have school boards refer to us primary care physicians, family health teams, anyone who’s working with a child, youth or family and as identified that there’s a mental-health issue.” In separate statements both the Sudbury Catholic School Board and Rainbow District School Board agree this is a good thing for staff and students. Help for families when they need it “When children and families receive the support they need at the time they need it, it helps students to achieve their full potential,” said a statement from Nicole Charette of the Rainbow District School Board. “Mental health and well-being is fundamental to student success.” “The introduction of the new 24/7 online self-referral system represents a significant advancement in making mental health support more accessible and user-friendly for children, youth, and families. “Mental health is foundational to the academic and personal success of our school communities and these changes remove barriers and provide resources that students need to thrive,” said Catholic school board spokesperson Brooklyn Olive. “The simplified referral process is invaluable as it enables us to connect our students and their families with Compass more efficiently and effectively.” Jackson said Compass serves children up to age 18, while the youth wellness hub downtown helps youth ages 12-25. Since the hub opened in June 2023, it has seen more than 15,000. “We have lots of services around for any youth, who might be struggling and who doesn’t know where to go,” she said. “We have tons of programming, and if we can’t offer you, the service will help you find what you need.” Jackson said wait times have been reduced significantly. For the initial intake, clients can expect to be seen within two weeks. For services beyond that, the wait time has been reduced from six months to a year to one or two months.
