At Kinark Child and Family Services, our team of child and youth mental health experts provide evidence-based services for children and youth with complex mental health needs, and their families. A full range of assessment and treatment services are provided by inter-disciplinary teams of clinicians. Kinark also serves as the Lead Agency for child and youth mental health services in three distinct service areas, supporting the coordination of service delivery across community partners.
Lead Agencies were appointed by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) as part of the Roadmap to Wellness and are tasked with moving this system-building work forward for children, youth and families. Kinark Child & Family Services is the Lead Agency for the York, Durham, and Haliburton/Kawartha Lakes/Peterborough service areas.
As Lead Agency, Kinark partners with Core Service Providers to:
- create clear and simple-to-use pathways to care for parents and youth;
- establish a plan for the delivery of CYMH services across the service area;
- deliver the range of defined core Ministry funded CYMH services;
- ensure those services are effective and reflect the needs of children, youth, and families. .
We are committed to supporting and collaborating with our community partners to strengthen the CYMH sector across all our service areas. Our work as Lead Agency is in collaboration with 15 Core Service Providers across three service areas.
Durham Core Service Providers:
- Chimo Youth & Family Services
- Durham Family Court Clinic
- Frontenac Youth Services
- Lakeridge Health (Oshawa)
- Resources for Exceptional Youth and Children (Durham Region)
Haliburton/Kawartha Lakes/Peterborough Core Service Providers:
- BGC Kawarthas
- Chimo Youth & Family Services
- Community Counselling and Resource Centre
- Peterborough Regional Health Centre
- Peterborough Youth Services
- Point in Time – Centre for Children, Youth and Parents
York Core Service Providers:
- Cedar Centre
- Family Services York Region
- Mackenzie Health
- Southlake Regional Health Centre
- York Hills Centre for Children, Youth and Families
As Lead Agency in three service areas, we are fortunate to be able to reflect on the unique differences in each of the communities, but also to be able to bring alignment to the overall priorities in a way that we can create a more coordinate system overall. This further enables the ability to share resources, learn, and collaborate, resulting in a more cohesive experience across regions for kids and families.
At the provincial level, senior leaders of Ontario’s Lead Agencies work together in a Lead Agency Consortium to coordinate efforts, advocate on behalf of Ontario’s CYMH service system, and collaborate with other service sectors to implement the Roadmap to Wellness and related system-transformation work.
The Lead Agency Consortium is committed to the goal of continually improving child and youth mental health and addiction services in Ontario so that children and youth and their families receive the right services for their unique needs at the right time and in the right place.
To read the Lead Agency Consortium Provincial Priorities Report, please click here.
To learn more about Kinark’s Community-based Mental Health Services, please click here.