Program focus: Mental Health
What is One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant?
One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant (OST/PM) offers free virtual counselling services and seamless entry into child and youth mental health services across Ontario. The program serves as a single access point to mental health services for children and youth aged 0-17, connecting them with registered and experienced therapists across the province. Our agency’s therapists and an integrated network of province-wide infant, child, and youth mental health agencies support this program.
Service Details
- Counselling by registered therapists spanning Ontario, including our agency’s therapists
- Immediate access to free therapy; no prior booking or appointment required
- Focuses on addressing one issue at a time and provides the freedom to access the service as many times as needed
- OST/PM is not anonymous – the program requires children and youth to provide information about themselves, including their name, date of birth, and postal code, to receive service
- Start with a conversation, leave with a plan. No matter why you connect, children and youth co-create a personalized plan with their therapist, which is shared with them
- Navigation services are available if additional assistance beyond the session is needed. OST/PM directly refers clients to additional services as close to them as possible in the child and youth mental health sector
- OST/PM has dedicated Francophone therapists and interpretation services to over 200+ languages, including ASL
Who can contact One Stop Talk/Parlons maintenant?
- Children and youth (aged 0-17 years) located in Ontario
- Parents and caregivers located in Ontario are recommended to access the service with their child(ren)
When is the service available?
- Monday to Friday, 12 PM to 8 PM EST
- Saturday 12 PM to 4 PM EST
Entry to the service closes 45 minutes before posted closure time to allow all clients to be served by end of service
What can we help with?
No issue is too big or small. If it’s important to you, it’s important to us.
To connect with a therapist, visit onestoptalk.ca or call us at 1 855 416 8255.
Program focus: Abuse, Behaviour Difficulty, LGBT, Mental Health, School, Sex Work, Skill Development, Trauma more…
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 to 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.
Program focus: Abuse, Behaviour Difficulty, LGBT, Mental Health, Nutrition, School, Sex Work, Trauma more…
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.
Hours of service
Virtual
Friday, 2 PM – 8 PM Last registration: 6:30 PM
To be connected to a counsellor for a telephone or video session, call us at 416-438-3697 press 1 and then enter ext. 12230 for reception.
In-person [Summer Family Hours]
Thursday, 12 PM – 6 PM Last registration: 4:30 PM
Location: 1940 Eglinton Ave East, Suite 300, Scarborough (Free parking available)
In-person
Monday – Thursday, 12 PM – 8 PM Last registration: 6:30 PM
Friday, 12 PM – 5 PM Last registration: 3:30 PM
Saturday, 10 AM – 4 PM Last registration: 2:30 PM
Location: 100 Consilium Place, Suite 102 (Ground Floor), Scarborough
- Service is offered in English, French and 238 other languages, including American Sign Language through instantaneous interpretation.
- No appointment is necessary; first come, first served.
- Registration closed 1h 30 mins prior to the end of in-person service hours.
- Capacity at times reached before last registration.
- Services closed on statutory holidays.
- Face masks are available for in-person sessions.
Supported by RBC:
In partnership with:
Program focus: ADHD, Autism, Behaviour Difficulty, Child Development, Communication Skills, Developmental Disability, LGBT, Mental Health, Parenting, School, Skill Development, Socializing, Trauma more…
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 647-689-2788. 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. 14292.
Program focus: Behaviour Difficulty, Child Development, Parenting
The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is a multi-level, preventively-oriented parenting and family support strategy developed by the authors and colleagues at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. The program aims to prevent severe behavioural, emotional and developmental problems in children by enhancing the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents.
The program content draws on the following:
- Social learning models of parent-child interaction that highlight the reciprocal and bidirectional nature of parent child interactions.
- Research in child and family behaviour therapy and applied behaviour analysis.
- Developmental research on parenting in everyday contexts
- Social information processing models that highlight the important role of parental cognitions such as attributions, expectancies and beliefs.
- Research from the field of developmental psychopathology that has identified specific risk and protective factors that are linked to adverse developmental outcomes in children.
- A population health perspective to family intervention that involves the explicit recognition of the role of the broader ecological context for human development.
The group goals are:
- To increase parents’ competence in managing common behavior problems and developmental issues
- To reduce parents’ use of coercive and punitive methods of disciplining children
- To reduce parenting stress associated with raising children
Triple P is offered over seven sessions:
- Introduction, What is Positive Parenting, Causes of Child Behaviour Problems, Goals for change, Keeping track of children’s behaviours
- Promoting children’s development, developing positive relationships with children, encouraging desirable behaviour, teaching new skills and behaviours
- Managing misbehaviour, developing parenting routines
- Planning ahead, family survival tips, high risk situations, planned activities routines
- Telephone session – Implementing parenting routines
- Telephone session – Implementing parenting routines continued
- Program close – phasing out the program, progress review, maintenance of change, problem solving for the future, future goals, celebration
Program focus: Behaviour Difficulty
The Priority Access for Students (PAS) Program provides individual and family focused counselling services as well as case management for Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board students and their families.
Students who need support and help are identified and referred by their school social workers to this program. Counselling can be provided in home or in office and includes collaboration with the schools to support students and their families around their identified mental health needs.
The goal of PAS is to prepare youth to function independently and effectively within the school environment, the greater community and in the home. We also work to prevent youth from needing more intensive services like a Residential Treatment program in the future. Trained clinicians provide Individual and Family Therapy once a week or up to two times a week if needed. Sometimes workers will meet clients in their community, at their school, or in their home, but we encourage in-office sessions at flexible times during the day or evening.
We will also connect youth to community resources that might be difficult to access.
Program focus: Behaviour Difficulty, Child Welfare, Life Skills, Mental Health, Trauma
Priority Access for Child Welfare (PACW) Services helps children and youth that are at-risk of being placed in child welfare because of challenges at home; severe difficulties at school that could lead to loss of school placement; or has significant mental health and/or addiction issues and child welfare has become involved. Depending on the need of the family, therapists can meet with youth and their caregivers weekly or bi-weekly for 3 to 6 months.
The goals of the program are to reduce the severity of the difficulties in the home, improve relationships and reduce the risk for out-of-home placement. Services are offered in a range of settings (e.g. our office, the community, child welfare office and sometimes the home) using a treatment plan that is created collaboratively with the child/youth/family. Trained therapists provide children/youth/families with tools to help develop healthy behaviours, better relationships and enable youth to function positively and effectively in the home whilst addressing their mental health and/or addiction issues.
Referral details
A referral needs to be made to Strides Toronto by one of the Child Welfare agencies:
- Children’s Aid Society Toronto (CAST)
- Catholic Children’s Aid Society (CCAS)
- Native Child and Family Services
- Jewish Family and Child Services
The social worker from the Child Welfare agency will ask for consent from the family and send Strides Toronto the referral form asking the therapist to help support family. Our therapist will then contact the family directly, and we will all agree a time to meet.
Program focus: Behaviour Difficulty, Child Welfare, Communication Skills, Mental Health, Socializing
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.
Referral details
Contact Strides Toronto Intake at 416-438-3697 ext. 19055 to initiate a referral.
Intake will help determine if Intensive Services is the most appropriate service for you or if there is an alternate service that may better meet your needs.
Program focus: Behaviour Difficulty, Communication Skills, Mental Health, Parenting
Family Counselling is intended to help caregivers explore their concerns about their child with a trained therapist. The goals of counselling services are to help your family get an understanding of your concerns and to enhance problem-solving skills; as well, to give your family an opportunity to learn effective ways to cope with any different challenges. It includes individual child therapy as well as trauma treatment services. Counselling may include parent coaching that helps parents create structure and routines for their children and teaches them effective behaviour management strategies.
Benefits of Family Counselling may include:
- Receiving help to define family goals
- Finding ways of achieving the goals and improving communication in your relationships
- Learning new information about your child’s personality or development
- Connecting or coordinating services with other community groups and activities
- Communicating with your child’s school or day care
- Learning more effective or useful parenting strategies
- Receiving an assessment to help with treatment planning (e.g., psychological assessment)
- Experiencing a safe place to talk about painful events that have affected your child
Access to this group is through Intake.
Program focus: Communication Skills, Mental Health, Parenting, Skill Development
Facing Your Fears is a group program that uses a cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) approach for the reduction of anxiety symptoms (Facing Your Fears Facilitator’s Manual, 2011). There is a vast amount of literature supporting the use of CBT to manage children’s anxiety, resulting in CBT being the best practice for the management of this disorder.
The overall goal is to provide children with the skills for them to be able to successfully cope in a variety of anxiety-provoking situations.
The treatment goals are:
- Helping children to recognize signs of anxious arousal and to use these as cues for the use of anxiety management strategies
- Encourage children to identify negative self-statements in order to initiate more positive and constructive self-statements
- Helping children to use self-ratings and self-rewards
- Identifying the cognitive processes associated with excessive anxious arousal
- Training in cognitive strategies for anxiety management and behavioural relaxation
- Performance-based practice opportunities with learned skills applied to real-life situations
- Provide parents with the knowledge and skills needed to support their child in coping with anxiety
There are 14 sessions, which cover:
- Welcome to Group: Words We Use for Worry
- When I Worry
- Time Spent Worrying
- What Worry Does to My Body: Beginning to Measure Worry
- The Mind-Body Connection
- More Mind-Body Connections: Introduction to Exposure
- Introduction to Exposure (Continued)
- Practicing Exposure and Making Movies
- Facing Fears and Making Movies
- Facing Fears and Making Movies
- Facing Fears and Making Movies
- Facing Fears and Making Movies
- Facing Fears and Making Movies
- Graduation
Access to this group is through Intake and Family Counselling Services which allows for assessment of eligibility criteria.