What is One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant?
One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant offers children, youth, and their families immediate access to free mental health supports when and how they need them. The program provides single-session counselling support and ensures direct referral to additional services when needed. Services are provided through an integrated network of infant, child and youth mental health agencies across Ontario.

You will receive:

• Counselling from experienced clinicians from across the province
• In the moment access to counselling, no appointment needed
• Access to One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant after hours and on weekends
• A plan you to take with you after the session that you co-create
• Direct connection to services in your community within the same visit, as needed
• The opportunity to self-select service when it’s right for you

Who can contact One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant?

• Children and Youth within 18 years of age
• Parents and caregivers of children and youth within 18 years of age

Help Ahead: Access for Infants, Children, Youth & Families

Help Ahead is a free referral phone service to help connect infants, children, youth up to 18 years old and their families to mental health and addiction services in their community. Our goal is to help those in need find and get mental health help as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Anyone under the age of 18 experiencing a mental health issue or anyone who wants to support someone under the age of 18 and wants access to mental health services can call.

If you are a young person, you might call if you:

• Feel anxious or worried
• Feel depressed, sad or angry
• Are being bullied
• Don’t feel yourself…
• Want more information about mental health and addiction services in your community.

If you are a parent/caregiver of an infant or child, you might call if:

• Your infant/child is crying inconsolably; having tantrums; irregular sleep or eating patterns;
• You are worried about your infant/child’s development; feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by parenting; or asking, “is this just a phase?”
• You want more information about mental health and addiction services in your community.

Service providers, doctors, teachers, school social workers, child protection services and any other support service can call Help Ahead too for more information, but we will need the expressed consent of the person or parent to refer to a service.

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The What’s Up Walk-In® Clinic is Toronto’s only free, six day a week mental health counselling walk-in service for children, youth, young adults, and families. The clinic helps with issues such as depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation, sexual identity matters, bullying, behavioural concerns, addictions, and anything else that might be on one’s mind. All the information you provide is confidential.

Therapists offer single sessions up to an hour long. We don’t judge. We will support you in your concerns and work collaboratively with you. The focus is on abilities, resources, and skills that you have, or you want to develop. Together we will target a priority concern and develop a plan with you that you feel comfortable with. If you feel you need more help, you can come back to the What’s Up Walk-In. All our therapists are clinically trained.

The clinic is barrier free, and accessible. No health card or appointment is necessary and it’s completely free!  The What’s Up Walk-In network is a collection of 6 agencies operating at 8 sites across the City of Toronto.

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Children, youth up to age 18, their mental health professional and families can access psychiatric consultation via virtual platform. Youth and family must be connected to a service provider to support the referral process.

This service requires a referral by a mental health professional who has worked with the child/youth and family and is knowledgeable of their situation. The mental health professional will be involved in the entire process following the psychiatric consultation and will follow up with the client on any recommendations.

All referral forms must be faxed to 416-926-1784. If you have any questions, please email the Urban Tele-Mental Health Service Coordinator at urbantelementalhealth@stridestoronto.ca or call us at 416-438-3697 ext. 21361.

Our Intensive Child and Family Service is offered to children and their caregivers who are experiencing social, emotional, and/or behavioural challenges that interfere with their daily lives and may lead to family breakdown in either their home, school and/or community. Often families eligible for this service are living with complex needs that may be impacting multiple domains of their lives.

Services are provided in-home, in-community, in-office or other settings which would be most helpful to supporting change. These services are provided by a Child and Family Therapist who will meet as frequently as required to help make a difference, offering service in a flexible manner that may include individual treatment, family and/or group therapy.

The Infant Mental Health program offers a variety of family-focused, multidisciplinary mental health assessment and treatment services that are inclusive and accessible to all families living in Scarborough. Services are provided at Strides Toronto, in the home, or in the community at a time convenient for the family.

The program strives to strengthen parent child interactions by focusing on building positive family relationships to improve healthy social and emotional development of infants and children (birth to 3 years old) in partnership with their families and communities.

Parents with young children under the age of 3 years who are concerned about their children’s behaviour (separation anxiety, sleep difficulties, eating concerns, excessive crying, or challenging behaviour) are eligible for this service.

Babies’ Best Start works in partnership with Toronto Public Health to provide service to families under the provincially funded program Healthy Babies Healthy Children. In this partnership a Public Health Nurse from the City of Toronto and a Family Home Visitor from Strides Toronto work as a team to provide in-home support to families in the prenatal stage and to families with young children from birth to three years of age. Children must be referred before the age of three.

The parent receiving this service determines their own goals which may include areas such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, healthy attachment, healthy eating, safety, child development, positive parenting, parent health and well-being and community resources. The home visitors represent a variety of cultural backgrounds and speak many different languages.

Eligibility Details

Clients must meet the following criteria:

• Living in Toronto
• Pregnant or parenting a child who is 0 to 3 years old
• Be the legal guardian of the child(ren)
• Actively parenting the child(ren) in the family’s place of residence
• Available for home visits during our hours of operation.

The client must also meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Healthcare professional has concerns about the health and well-being of the client, family and/or child.
• Parent has concerns or questions about the child’s health and development, parenting, parent-child relationship.
• Newcomer to Canada, here less than three years and having their first baby in Canada.
• Client has a limited informal and/or formal support system.
• Client has a history of or is experiencing physical and/or mental health illness that is impacting capacity to parent or cope with pregnancy.
• Client facing challenging life situations or life stressors such as homeless, domestic violence, child protection concerns, no OHIP.

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The Healthy Babies Healthy Children program is funded by the government of Ontario and delivered by your local public health unit.

Child Care Consultation provide services to licensed child care related to children with extra support needs and their families.

Child Consultation Staff are trained professionals who:

• Support child care programs to build inclusive environments;
• Work with child care staff to develop and carry out strategies that support children and families;
• Deliver training to support learning around inclusive practices.

All requests go through child care centres. Additional information may be obtained by contacting the Manager, Family Connections at 416-321-5464 ext. 482 or Loraine.bairstow@stridestoronto.ca

This program is funded through the City of Toronto’s Every Child Belongs Model.

One in ten children need extra help developing speech and language skills. Without help, it may be harder for these children to listen, talk, read, and play with others. Strides Preschool Speech and Language Program (PSL) supports children living in the east area of Toronto achieve their optimal communication development.

Strides PSL offers the following services to children from birth until they are eligible to start full-day kindergarten: assessment, consultation to parents, community-based children’s programs, and other professionals, parent training and information sessions; group and individual speech and language intervention, and referral to a wide range of child and family services in the community.

Service duration
The type and duration of service provided are determined based on the child’s level of communication functioning and caregivers’ preferences for service plan options. Services may range from consultation every few months to participation in weekly therapy sessions that typically are offered once a week for approximately six weeks.

For more information about the program, click here.

The Preschool Speech and Language Program at Strides Toronto is part of a community partnership led by Surrey Place Centre, in collaboration with The Hanen Centre, Lumenus Community Services, Macaulay Child Development Centre and George Hull Family and Child Centre.

This program offers Family Home Visiting and Parenting Groups and is designed for families with children  from birth to under 6 years of age who may be new to Canada, are living on a low income, or may be feeling alone or overwhelmed. The goal of our program is to help mothers and fathers see their strengths, build strong relationships with the children, and find positive ways to raise healthy, happy children. This program is free and voluntary.

Family Home Visiting
Supportive professional Family Home Visitors can meet regularly with parents in their home to provide information about infant and child development, healthy eating, safety, breastfeeding, toileting and community resources.

Parenting Groups
Trained staff offer a variety of weekly parenting groups such as Infant Massage, Parent-Child Mother Goose®, Nobody’s Perfect Parenting Group, Building Connections, and Summer Fun. Groups are offered at different community locations across Scarborough.