Mental health and health services expanding to include three local high schools

A range of health services are being expanded this year to two additional local high schools.

The Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex County Branch, the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, and Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare announced the expansion on Wednesday afternoon.

A Youth Mobile Clinic was offered at F.J. Brennan Catholic High School for the last month of the 2024-25 school year, and the student health initiative will now be expanded to include Assumption College Catholic High School and Cardinal Carter Catholic Secondary School starting this September.

The Youth Mobile Clinic sees social workers and a registered practical nurse stationed right at the school to provide students with access to mental health services and basic health care. Students can stop in for confidential, one-on-one support without an appointment.

Students can access minor wound care, vaccine support, physical assessment of any current concerns, in-person mental health supports, connections to primary care, among more.

Nicole Sbrocca, CEO of CMHA Windsor-Essex, says they saw success in the four weeks this program ran at Brennan.

“I think we were averaging in the early weeks five students a day, which might not sound like a lot, but without promoting that was pretty significant. Our Youth Mobile Clinic team went classroom to classroom to promote what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, when to access them, and that built up a bit more in terms of awareness and knowledge.”

Julia Valeriani is a Clinical Therapist with Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare working at the Youth Mobile Clinic. She says youth today are struggling with a host of different issues.

“Whether it be depression, anxiety, peer relationships, complex family dynamics at home, sometimes even things around housing, food disparity, all kinds of environmental issues as well. So the limit does not exist when it comes to what we’re talking to youth about.”

Valeriani says this allows students to get services right at school.

“We’re able to meet with students where they’re at, we’re able to catch them during the school day, after school – which is really helpful to them – they say those are their two times that they’d like to be able to see us… on their lunches, you name it, we can now go right to them.”

The Youth Mobile Clinic team will alternate between the three schools each week, and will be available between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at each location.

The initiative is funded by Ontario Health’s Locally Driven Collaborative Projects program fund, which flows through the Windsor-Essex branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

CMHA receives approximately $900,000 annually through this program fund for this initiative. This is still considered a pilot project at this time, and the initiative still has two more years of funding.