Appointment: David Willis as Director of Strategy and Systems Management, East Metro Youth Services
I am pleased to announce that David Willis will be joining East Metro Youth Services (EMYS) as Director, Strategy and Systems Management effective August 13, 2018. David is currently the Clinical Services Manager at The Hospital for Sick Children, overseeing a variety of programs including Tele-Link Mental Health and Brain and Mental Health. David fills Roberta Bustard role.
At SickKids, as part of the leadership team of the Brain and Mental Health Program, David provided clinical leadership to the Tele-Link Mental Health program, Ambulatory Psychiatry, Urgent Care Clinic, Collaborative and Transitional Care, Mental Health Access Program, Consultation Liaison Psychiatry and the Division of Adolescent Medicine, which includes Substance Abuse, Eating Disorders, Young Families, Good 2 Go, the Sity Clinic and Transgender Program.
His career in children’s mental health started with The Hincks Dellcrest Centre where he was part of the front-line leadership team providing programming and front-line support to the child and adolescent mental health experts within their rural treatment centre located north of Toronto. In 2005, David joined The Hospital for Sick Children’s Telepsychiatry Program and has come to manage 23 distinct clinics across the hospital.
During this time Willis has also managed the technology enabled health care programs in the hospital introducing video conference-based health care to over 60 clinics across the organization. As part of his mental health portfolio David was responsible for strategy development, stakeholder engagement and programing partnerships at the local, regional, provincial, national and international level where he has successfully partnered with governments, hospitals, school boards, mental health agencies, child protection and the youth justice sectors to bring child and adolescent psychiatry expertise to children, youth and families in rural, remote and underserved areas of Canada.
Willis sits on over 20 national and international committees related to Children’s Mental Health and been recognized at the organizational, provincial and territorial levels for his work on reducing the barriers to service for vulnerable populations with a focus on Indigenous, Inuit and Metis youth. For 14 years, he has worked with Indigenous leaders from northern and north-western Ontario to support enhanced pathways to mental health services for their communities, children and youth. Through this work he created partnerships with children’s mental health agencies including Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, Weechi-it-te-win Family Services, Payukotayno James and Hudson’s Bay Family Services, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority/Nodin, Tikinagan Child and Family Services to develop, implement and operationalize a culturally sensitive, culturally inclusive and northern centered shared care model that focuses on the individual, the family, the community and culture as the centre point in which we then start to build complimentary partnerships and clinical work. He was recognized by the Premier of Nunavut as a champion and partner of the government for the work he did there as part of Connected North – a Cisco sponsored program bringing southern experiences and expertise to northern children.
David has served as President of the Board of Directors of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre and is the current Chair of Call a Service Seniors Transportation service (CAS). He is also the Chair of East Metro Health Group, which is a Board that distributes funding to community-based health and mental health organizations operating in the east end of the city. David brings to this role 20 years of front line and management experience within the health and mental health field that is supported by a post Baccalaureate Diploma in Management and a Masters Degree in Business.
Under David’s portfolio, he will be responsible for leading EMYS’ Strategy and Systems Management team, including overseeing the developing and operationalizing of our lead agency three-year strategy plan, the Provincial Youth Outreach Worker network, and collaborating with our current and new partners to further build system pathways and connections.
Please join us in welcoming David to EMYS!
Deb Shime, Chief Executive Officer, East Metro Youth Services