What is the system challenge?

Police in the Ottawa region often receive calls for social service-related issues, ongoing crisis incidents, and mental health challenges for children less than 12 years of age. Canada’s youth justice legislation, the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), only applies to children and youth between the ages of 12 and 17. This means that:

there is no clear approach for responding to children under 12 who come in contact with police;
there is no consistent approach for identifying the mental health and addiction service needs of these children and youth at their earliest contact with the justice system;
considerable police resources (75 to 85 percent of service calls) are invested in responding to incidents for which charges cannot be laid and for which social service agencies need to be involved (Russell & Taylor, 2014 - PDF)

Intersections was first implemented in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry; Leeds, Lanark and Grenville; and Renfrew County by the Champlain Youth Justice Service Collaborative (CYJSC) with support from the Provincial System Support Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental health. This program was developed to be flexible for the unique and diverse needs of the Champlain region. It was also identified that further adaptation was required to meet the unique needs of the Prescott Russell community.

Intersections helps police direct children, youth and their families to the right service, by the right provider, at the right time. Children and youth are able to receive supports for mental health, addictions, or developmental disabilities, as needed.

Police are now able to be responsive to youth and families instead of having to “wait” to get them help when they turn 12 (when the YCJA becomes applicable), or until they engage in activities that could lead to a chargeable offense.

The program involves three steps:

First Contact – Police respond to an incident where the child or youth meets inclusion criteria. Police obtain consent from parent/guardian before sending a Referral Form to the Intersections Host.
Engagement and Screening – Intersections Worker meets with the child or youth and their parent/guardian to determine service pathways given their unique strengths and needs.
Interventions and Pathways – Intersections Worker completes referral as per referral protocol with specified agency and stays connected during the referral until the file can be closed.

Exploration
Installation
Initial Implementation
Full Implementation

?What's this?

Exploration

The Champlain Youth Justice Service Collaborative (CYJSC) came together in 2013 to address the system gap of “navigating youth through various pathways to appropriate individualized support services.” They believed that an early intervention program that would help police direct youth with mental illness, substance use issues, or developmental disabilities to the right services would reduce the chance that these youth would come into contact with police in the future. After reviewing evidence-informed interventions, CYJSC used a consensus-building approach to select a model from the UK that was then adapted to become Intersections.

Installation

Champlain is a large geographic area with diverse populations, so the Champlain Youth Justice Service Collaborative decided to divide it into five distinct regions, each with their own Service Collaborative Implementation Team (SCIT): Lanark, Leeds, and Grenville; Renfrew; Ottawa; Prescott Russell; and Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry. The Prescott Russell SCIT worked to develop an operational guide, identify training needs, build a coaching plan, and create a process for supporting Intersections workers and referring agencies.

Initial Implementation

Training sessions to support Prescott Russell Intersections rolled out in 2017 and each partner agency was coached to build their own, agency-level implementation plan. The Prescott Russell Intersections SCIT has begun to take the lead in supporting the implementation of Intersections, and the police are beginning to refer youth and families to the program.

Who is involved?

This Service Collaborative brought together 150 partners from diverse sectors across five regions, including:

community;
justice;
police;
mental health and addictions;
education;
primary care;
developmental and child welfare; and
family members.

Next steps

Check out how community partners are actively providing Intersections supports and their achievements in Champlain region.

CAMH PSSP

Intersections - Prescott Russell

What is the system challenge?

What are we doing about it?

Exploration

Installation

Initial Implementation

Full Implementation

Who is involved?

Next steps

For more information, please contact:

Meghann Darroch, Regional Implementation Coordinator

Kelsey Benoit, Youth Mental Health Court Worker/Intersections Worker

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