Youth mental health residential treatment facility in Sudbury opening in 2026

Sudbury to host residential treatment facility The lead agency for child and youth mental health services in Sudbury and Manitoulin is planning to open a residential treatment facility.

Compass, the lead agency for child and youth mental health services in Sudbury and Manitoulin, is planning to open the region’s first residential treatment facility.

Officials said it will help break down barriers to access and allow the agency to expand services to support children, youth, and families.

The facility will be located in the former Cyril Varney Public School, a 26,000-square-foot building. Compass has signed a long-term lease and the building will undergo renovations ahead of the 2026 opening.

"We will be leasing the site to operate all of our services over the next 20 years," said Nicole Minialoff, Compass project lead.

"We will actually be expanding our services and opening up the region’s first residential treatment facility and moving over our core services into this facility."

The agency received funding from the Ministry of Health last spring to open a residential treatment facility. Compass said there will be six beds.

"Up (until now), when clients required intensive services, they would have to transition down to southern Ontario to access those services," said Minialoff.

"This is really a big announcement for our community to have received this funding to operate these services. So that was really the driver to seeking out a new site."

Compass has been in the community for 34 years and currently serves more than 2,000 children, youth and families each year.

"We have really recognized especially over the last few years," said Minialoff.

"The needs really continue to grow for mental health services within our community and it’s especially compounded by some of the different factors coming out of COVID-19 and so we do see that the needs continue to rise."

Officials said the former school will be extensively renovated into a state-of-the-art space tailored to the services offered by Compass.